The Hitachiin Housekeeper
by dogluver8906
Summary: A new housekeeper and a new girl in the Host Club.
1. Chapter 1

It was a normal day in the Host Club. Everyone was enjoying themselves, particularly the girls. Although, with seven cute guys in the room (this includes Haruhi, since the girls in the club have no idea he's really a she) to keep them entertained...who wouldn't be having fun? Tamaki was sitting on an elegant sofa surrounded by girls, being his usual charming self. Haruhi was seated on yet another sofa a few feet away having a nice conversation with her guests. As usual, Hunny was eating strawberry cake with white icing among girls who simply loved his cuteness.

Mori, sat watching him and of course, said very little. Kyoya stood near the doors observing everyone and writing in his black book. Lastly, the Hitachiin brothers, who looked identical, were busy entertaining their own guests with yet another round of the game "Which One is Hikaru?". "Ladies, can you tell which one is Hikaru?" asked Hikaru, his arm linked with his brothers and a green hat, same as his brother's, covering the part in his hair. The girls giggled and wiggled in their seats. Everyone turned at the sound of loud female laughter.

Next to Kyoya, who still stood near the doors writing in his black book, only now he had a small grin on his face, stood a young girl. She had a fair complection, light brown short straight hair which barely reached her shoulders, brown eyes just a slightly darker shade than her hair. Her clothing was simple, blue jeans, a white long sleeved shirt under a blue short sleeved shirt, and a pair of black and white Converse tennis shoes. She wiped away tears from laughing so hard and said "so you guys play that stupid game here too? I can remember my first day on the job, haha, those two told me if I got it right they'd clean their room themselves so I wouldn't have to do it."

As the girl talked she walked towards the twins to take a seat near their guests. "Of course, I didn't get it right then, I can tell them apart now, but it's only because I learned to recognize the difference in their voices." No one said anything to her, so Tamaki approached. "My dear lady, while I welcome you to our Host club, I am also curious as to how you know these two personally?" Tamaki gestured to the twins with his hands as he spoke. The new girl blushed bright red, "Oh my, you're very cute! I've never been one to be into pretty boys like you, but I just can't resist you!"

Tamaki was thrilled with the idea of being called "pretty" and started going on about how his looks were a gift from God and some other pointless talk that no one paid attention to. Just as the new girl opened her mouth to say something, Kyoya, who finally took his eyes off of his black book, approached the group she now sat with. "Her name is Ayame Urashima, although how she knows Kaoru and Hikaru I'm not sure," said Kyoya. Ayame looked up at Kyoya who stood next to her, "how do you know my name?" Kyoya grinned and looked her in the eye, "that's not relevent at the moment."

All eyes were on the new girl, who stared curiously at Kyoya, "I work for Hikaru's and Kaoru's family, as a housekeeper. I have been working for them for over a month now and I kept overhearing them talking about something called a Host Club. They always made it sound like so much fun, so I thought I'd come and pay them a visit on my lunch break and see what this Host Club (at this she made air quotations with her fingers) was all about." Having finished explaining who she was and why she was there in the first place, Ayame took her eyes off of Kyoya and pulled a sandwhich out of a paper bag she had brought with her and took a bite. In between chewing she said, "so...boys...I'm a girl...would you be ok...with me...being a guest here?"

The twins looked at one another, "we have no problem with it." Tamaki, who had finished his pointless speech a while ago to hear Ayame's introduction said "of course you can be a guest." Kyoya kept his eyes on whatever it was he was writing in his black book, "it's perfectly fine with me."

The rest of the Host club nodded in silent agreement to accepting this stranger as a new guest. The remainder of club activities went smoothly, including when Hikaru's and Kaoru's guests began asking Ayame questions about how the boys behaved at home. Of course, she knew all about their act of incestous twin brothers from overhearing them (really she had eavesdropped, she even knew Haruhi was really a girl) talk about the club. So, she told the girls things they would want to hear, that the brother's acted the same way at home as they did in the club.


	2. Chapter 2

Ayame arrived at the doors to Music Room 3. She opened one of the doors and several rose petals flew in her direction. She gasped as she saw the hosts. "Geez, they're all so good looking! Haruhi even really looks like a guy!" She made sure to not say that out loud. She couldn't help her thoughts, she was a boy crazed girl, afterall. This time the hosts were all arranged around Tamaki, who sat in a chair, in order to greet their guests. Due to her gawking a rose petal flew into her mouth. "Ick," she spat it out and didn't notice Tamaki uproach her until he was standing right in front of her. He took hold of her right hand with his left and used his right hand to trace her jawline with his finger. He was so close. She couldn't help but stare into his eyes. She loved the color of his eyes.

"I apologize about the rose petal, my princess. I had plucked them because they reminded me of your beauty." Ayame felt a tingle go up and down her spine as he spoke. "I think I'll sit with you today, Tamaki." From where he stood, behind Tamaki's chair, Kyoya rolled his eyes. The hosts moved to sit down to wait for their other guests. The twins and Haruhi sat on a sofa together. Tamaki, and Ayame sat together across from them. Kyoya stood next to Tamaki. Honey and Mori sat at their table, Honey, of course, began to eat cake. Ayame looked around the room and said to no one in particular, "am I the first one here?" It was Kyoya that answered her, "why yes, you are."

Kyoya went back to writing in his black book. A moment of awkward silence passed. "Ayame, how did you end up working for Hikaru and Kaoru?" This was Haruhi's attempt at making conversation. "Who cares, lets talk about something else," the twins said in perfect unison. They looked bored. Tamaki was upset with their rudeness. "Don't talk about a guest like that!" Ayame smiled, "It's alright Tamaki, I'm sure they didn't mean to be rude. But, it would be wise for them to remember that I am the one who washes their clothes. I could easily forget that I shouldn't add bleach to their colored clothes."

Ayame's eyes sparkled demonically. The twins went into hiding behind the sofa they had been sitting on. Tamaki quickly joined them. All three peeked over the top of the sofa. Tamaki whispered what all three of them were thinking, "who knew a sweet girl like that could look so evil." Kyoya took Tamaki's seat next to Ayame. "I am also curious as to how the only child of the very wealthy and very powerful Urashima family has ended up working as a housekeeper. Kyoya laid down his black book and pen on the table in front of him. He looked patiently at Ayame. She, however, looked annoyed. "I'd like to know how you know so much about my personal life."

Kyoya pushed up his glasses. "As the daughter of a man very much involved in politics I have seen your photo and read about your family in the newspaper at least once." He lied. The three boys who had been hiding now stood up, curious. Ayame sighed. "Well Ootori, while I don't think it's any of your business, I'll still tell you." Everyone was focused on Ayame. "I started working in a boarding kennel for a friend. I was referred to the housekeeping job at the Hitachiin residence by that friend when she had to move to America about a year after I'd started working for her. I hope to one day have enough money to move to America to be with my friend again and also open a boarding kennel of my own. As for my family, stuff happened."

Ayame didn't say anything more. So, Kyoya asked, "what type of stuff happened? I would have thought someone with parents as wealthy as yours would be in the university, not working." Ayame smiled and picked up Kyoya's pen from the table in front of her. Her smile made her look sweet, but her words didn't match her smile. "Ootori, I am not telling you anything more. I will say that I no longer associate with my family, but don't you dare ask for more details. Okay?"

She snapped the pen in two. Tamaki and the twins went back into hiding by crouching behind the sofa. Hikaru dared to ask, "Boss, she's kind of scary, are you sure we should let her be a guest?" "Well, she won't hurt us, she's mad at Kyoya, not us," said a crouched down Tamaki. Kyoya was not phazed. "You referred to me as Ootori, but I never mentioned my last name to you." Ayame's voice was calm again. "My parents had told me about you. The youngest son of the Ootori family. They said I would like you if I got to know you." Kyoya was confused. "If you knew then why, at that time, did you..."

Kyoya's question was cut off by a loud "welcome" from the other hosts. The guests had arrived. Kyoya moved to a table by one of the windows and made himself busy by typing on his lap top. A short time later he was completely absorbed into his work when somoene pushed his laptop closed. It was Ayame. She leaned in close to him over the table. She looked straight into his eyes. Kyoya could feel her warm breath on his face. Her face was so close to his. His heart beat just a little faster.

His facial expression, however, stayed very calm. "Ootori, you were about to ask me why I acted like I didn't know you yesterday when the guests arrived, weren't you?" That wasn't what Kyoya was going to ask, but he was curious to hear the answer to that question as well. Ayame moved away from Kyoya and into the seat across from him. "I'm sorry, but, I had forgotten my father mentioning you. It wasn't until I heard the others say your name that I realized I knew it from somewhere. I rattled my brain until it popped into my head where I'd heard your name from. Back then I had figured my father wanted me to get to know you since both of our fathers were going to be doing some business together. Although, it's a shame we never got to meet before."

Ayame smiled at him. Kyoya listened to Ayame's explanation without responding. Once she was finished, he asked, "do you mean to tell me that you don't remember that evening we met?" Ayame's smile faded. She turned sideways in her seat and let her hair fall so that Kyoya couldn't see her face. "Yes, I remember, but I had hoped that you had forgotten, or, that you wouldn't bring it up. But then I made the mistake of calling you by your last name. I had to come up with some kind of answer as to how I knew it. So, I lied. I had hoped you would think I had forgotten that night and that you would just leave it alone."

Kyoya was confused again. "Why? I had thought you'd had a nice time that evening. I even called your house the following day so that we could spend time together again." Ayame still wouldn't look at Kyoya. "I don't want to talk about that night." Ayame sighed as if she were tired. "By the following day I no longer lived in that house. But, don't ask why because I won't tell you. Just be happy that we can hang out together now."

Ayame finally looked up at Kyoya. He gave her his host smile. "I am glad that we have the opportunity to spend time together now. However, I have one last question." Kyoya looked straight into her eyes to get her attention. "I'm sure your parents told you about what we were expected to do. My father told me that same evening and I had accepted the idea. Why is it that you rejected it?" Ayame looked very confused. "I thought all we had been expected to do was become friends?" If she didn't know what he was talking about Kyoya wasn't about to explain. "Yes, you're right, that's all we had been expected to do." He was lying again. He thought, "so she wasn't told everything. Perhaps I'll have a second chance this way."


	3. Chapter 3

It was a beautiful morning. The twins were at school. Which, meant that Ayame could breeze through her chores without worry of them jumping out and surprising her or making a mess of anything she'd just cleaned. She was humming to herself as she entered the boys' room. She carried a laundry basket filled with their clothes on her hip. She was both surprised and a bit annoyed to find Kaoru sitting up in bed. He was alone.

She was curious, so she asked, "shouldn't you be in school?" Kaoru took his attention off of the large screen television that hung on the wall on the other side of the room to turn to Ayame. "I'm sick, I have a cold. So, I stayed home for the day." Ayame could easily tell he was sick just from his voice. It sounded raspy and it was clear that he was congested. Ayame sighed, she was a bit annoyed that a perfect morning had been interrupted by having one of the twins at home. She hoped that since he was sick he wouldn't be able to tease her or mess with her in any way.

She went about what she needed to do in that room and acted as if Kaoru simply wasn't there. Kaoru watched her cross the room to their dresser. He was also curious about something. "Why aren't you in school? You're like, sixteen, aren't you?" Ayame didn't look up from what she was doing. Instead, she knelt down and opened the bottom dresser drawer as she answered him. "I am seventeen actually. I just turned seventeen before I started working here. I finished school when I was sixteen, in home studies."

Kaoru sniffed and realized just what she was putting away in the dresser. "Hey! That's my underwear!" He got up and grabbed the pair Ayame had been folding out of her hand. She didn't hesitate to grab them right back. "I'm not doing it to be perverted! It's part of my job. So, get back to bed." Kaoru was a little annoyed.

But, feeling sick, he wasn't about to argue with her, so he let it go and went back to the bed. After finishing putting away the clothes she started dusting the room. It wasn't long before she was dusting the large television. Without meaning to, she was blocking Kaoru's view. He tried to be polite and let her finish.

But, after she finished dusting it she started cleaning the screen with a glass cleaner. Kaoru already didn't feel well, but without being able to even watch television he was beginning to feel bored and restless. He didn't like staying home from school. Of course, he didn't mind not having to do school work, but he missed his brother and his friends. He sighed loudly. Ayame turned around, "is everything okay, Kaoru? Do you need something?" Kaoru hadn't meant to get her attention.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just bored." Ayame realized she'd been blocking Kaoru's view of the television. "Oh, I'm sorry, you were watching t.v. and I stepped in front of it." She moved on to clean the computer desk and out of Kaoru's way. That's when she heard it again. Kaoru had sighed.

"Are you sure there's nothing I can get for you Kaoru?" Kaoru turned to Ayame, "nope. I'm fine. I'm just bored." Ayame turned back to dusting the computer and noticed some papers. It appeared to be unfinished math homework, with Kaoru's name on it. Ayame picked them up, "hey, this is yours right? Why don't you work on it. You have nothing else to do, right?"

Kaoru smiled at her, "isn't part of staying home sick from school not having to do school work?" Ayame half laughed, "I guess you're right." Ayame thought for a moment. "Hold on, I'm going to go get something from my backpack downstairs." Kaoru said to himself, "what could she be up to?" Ayame came back into the room with what looked like a book in her hand. She showed it to Kaoru. "What is it?" Ayame smiled proudly, "it's the first volume of the Inuyasha manga. I thought you might like to read it, so you won't be so bored."

Kaoru laughed, "I didn't want to do my homework and yet you think I'd like to read?" Ayame couldn't argue with that logic. She looked a little defeated. That is, until she thought of something else. As she left the room she said, "wait here, I have something else you can entertain yourself with." "She's kind of weird," Kaoru thought to himself. Ayame came back into the room with a messenger bag with a picture of both Inuyasha and Sesshourmaru on it. They were back to back with the Tetsaiga in between them. Kaoru noticed it.

"You must really like that anime, huh?" Ayame gave him a wide smile, "yep, I love it. I have the episodes on DVD in my bag. Do you want to watch it?" Kaoru wasn't really interested in watching an anime, but, he figured it couldn't hurt. Afterall, he had nothing else to do. "Okay, sure." Ayame pulled out the DVD with the first episodes on it from her backpack. She popped it into the DVD player and started to walk out of the room. What Kaoru said next surprised her.

"Aren't you going to watch it with me?" She turned to look at him, a confused look on her face. "I have other chores to do. I don't want to slack off and get into trouble." Kaoru looked sure of himself as he answered. "You won't be slacking off. If you stay here you can get me whatever I need when I need it. So, if anyone asks you can say you spent the day looking after me. Plus, it's no fun watching a movie by myself."

He gave her a smile she couldn't resist. "Okay, I'll stay," she said, but she thought, "geez, when he smiles like that I feel like a fly being attracted to a bright light!" Ayame sat on the bed next to Kaoru and dumped out her bag. Out fell a notebook, pens, deoderant, several Inuyasha manga and DVDs, an mp3 player, a wallet, a bottle of water, a cell phone, an asthma inhaler and a deck of playing cards. "Do you want to play cards?" Kaoru wondered why she had so much stuff in her bag before replying, "sure." Ayame picked up the deck of playing cards, they had Inuyasha characters on them. Kaoru had to laugh, "oh wow, you must really love this show. Do you have everything with those characters on them?" Ayame took his question seriously.

"No, I wish I did. But some stuff is just too expensive." Kaoru laughed again and thought, "she's weird." They started playing cards and watching the anime. It wasn't long, however, before Ayame seemed more interested in the anime than their card game. Kaoru took it upon himself to refocus her attention. On screen Kagome had been pulled into the well and mistress centipede licked her face. Kaoru looked a little surprised to see that, "this isn't going to turn into hentai, is it?" Ayame laughed, "no!" Not much more was said for a while.

They quietly played their card games. That is, until Ayame saw someone on screen who excited her. "Oh! Kaoru look! It's Sesshoumaru! He is the coolest!" She smiled wide. Kaoru smiled back, "isn't he supposed to be evil? You actually like the evil character of the show?" Ayame kept on smiling, "well he may be evil, but you find out later on he has a nice side to him. That's what makes him so cool. He's an evil nice guy."

They both laughed at that. Their day together continued on like that. They played cards and every now and then Kaoru would comment on the show. They lost track of time that way. That is, until Hikaru walked into the room. He was home from school and he looked tired and somewhat annoyed. He immediately noticed Ayame sitting on what was normally his side of the bed. "Ugh, Ayame, I'd like to change clothes, do you think you could leave?" Ayame jumped up, "oh, sorry, Hikaru, I was just looking after Kaoru."

But Hikaru didn't care why she was in there. Ayame turned to Kaoru, "I guess I'll be going. But, go ahead and borrow the DVDs. Just make sure you give them back when you're done watching them." Kaoru agreed. Once Ayame was out of the room Hikaru threw off his uniform jacket, tie, and shoes, and plopped face down onto the bed. A thought came to Kaoru, "aren't you supposed to be in the club right now?" Hikaru lifted his head, "I didn't want to go without you. So, I came home. The boss will be mad, but, whatever. You must have been bored without me. I was bored without you."

Kaoru had the slightest smile on his face. "I managed to keep myself entertained today." Hikaru noticed what was playing on the t.v. "What the heck are you watching?" Kaoru smiled wider, "it's an anime called Inuyasha. You have to watch it. It's cool." Hikaru gave his brother a confused look.

But, Kaoru wasn't paying attention to him, he was focusing his attention on the anime. The following day Kaoru was feeling much better. He dressed to go to school and went downstairs to grab something to eat on the way to school. That's where he found her. Ayame was at the sink washing dishes. She was swaying her hips and humming like the morning before.

Kaoru started to laugh. The sound of his laughter made Ayame turn around. She pulled an ear plug that connected to her mp3 player out of her ear. She smiled at the site of Kaoru looking well again. "Good morning, Kaoru, I'm pleased to see you're feeling well enough to go to school this morning. But, what, were you laughing at?"

Kaoru smiled, "your dancing and humming. Do you always come to work this cheerful?" Ayame looked at him seriously, "well I wasn't being cheerful because I'm here at work. It was the song." Ayame walked up to Kaoru, "here, put this in your ear and I'll play it again." Kaoru did as she asked. "Isn't this one of the theme songs to Inuyasha?" Ayame was pleased he'd recognized it. "Yes! It's fun to dance to! Want to dance with me to it?" Kaoru laughed, "are you serious? That's a little weird, isn't it?" Ayame looked at him with a bored expression.

"No, it's not weird. But, I get why you don't want to. You're afraid you'll embarass yourself because you can't dance." Kaoru looked serious. "I can so dance!" To prove it he took hold of her hand and put a hand on her waist. They moved to the music, smiling the entire time. "I have to admit, she's a little weird, but she's also kind of fun." Kaoru spun her around and pulled her back to him. Ayame smiled up at him. The song ended and Kaoru handed Ayame back her ear plug.

"Thank you for the dance Kaoru. It was fun. But, I think you'd better head out to the car or you guys will be late to school." Kaoru grabbed a muffin off the counter. "If we're late it's because you seduced me into dancing with you." She had to laugh, "be quiet! I did no such thing! Now, shoo, get out of here!" Ayame waved her hands at Kaoru and he headed out the door. In the car Hikaru asked him, "what took you so long in the kitchen?" Kaoru took a bite of his muffin. He talked as he chewed, "I just couldn't decide what I wanted." Kaoru started to hum the same song he and Ayame had danced to. Hikaru noticed but said nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

Ayame looked at herself in the mirror. She wore a strapless purple evening gown. She groaned to herself. "Ugh, I hate wearing dresses." She heard a rustling sound behind her. She turned around to see her jeans being pulled off of the top of the dressing room door, where she'd put them. She rushed out of the dressing room.

Kaoru was holding her jeans, now folded, in his hand. She rushed at him. But, all he had to do was raise his arm with the jeans in his hand and she couldn't reach them. She was too short. So, she started to whine. "Give me back my jeans!" Kaoru smiled at her. "If I give them back you'll just put them on when you get annoyed and refuse to try on and model anymore dresses for our mom. You'll get them back when we're done."

Ayame stopped trying to grab her jeans. She looked to the floor and sniffed. A single tear slid down her cheek. Kaoru wasn't fooled. "I know the boss showed you how to use eye drops to make it look like you're crying." Ayame stuck her tongue out at Kaoru and went back into the dressing room.

She locked the door behind herself. Kaoru laughed and thought "I must admit that she's cute when she's annoyed and she looks great in that dress." Hikaru, who had been with their mom and Haruhi as Haurhi also modeled a dress, though not willingly, walked over to Kaoru. "How's it going with Ayame?" Kaoru smiled, "she's being stubborn. I should have let you deal with her while I worked with Haruhi." Ayame was still annoyed and her voice reflected that, "I can hear you! I'm not stubborn!" Both boys laughed and said, "of course you're not Ayame."

The trio did not notice that a woman had been watching them from across the room. She had been peeking over the top of a fashion magazine as she waited to have herself measured. At the moment, however, she wore her own clothes, a black pant suit, short heels, and gold jewelry in the form of earings, a diamond ring, and a necklace. After Ayame had locked herself in the dressing room the woman approached the twins. "Excuse me for asking, but are you two the Hitachiin twins?" The woman gave them a smile. But, there was something hollow and cold about it. The boys were not impressed. "Who wants to know?"

Their tone was just as cold as the woman's smile. She cleared her throat, "my name is Emi Urashima." Ayame stiffened inside the dressing room. "I am Ayame Urashima's mother." The twins looked at one another. It wasn't hard to see the resemblance. They looked very much alike, except Emi Urashima had longer hair. Emi turned her attention to the dressing room Ayame had locked herself in.

"Ayame, dear, why don't you come out of there and join us. I haven't seen you in so long, afterall." Ayame tentatively unlocked the door and stepped out. She looked like she wanted to run away. "He...Hello, Mother. What are you doing here?" Emi crossed her arms across her chest. "I merely came to be measured for some new clothes I'd like to buy. You know how your father likes to pamper me. Although, the way I remember it he used to pamper you as well. That is, until you became disrespectful." Ayame said nothing. She was afraid to. The twins didn't know what to say. "Tell me, Ayame, why are you here with the Hitachiin twins? Don't tell me you've become so desperate without your father's money that you are now using these two."

Ayame had to speak up for herself. As afraid as she was, she would not tolerate being put down. Not anymore. "No, Mother...I...I work for the Hitachiin family now. I'm only here now to model dresses for their mother. As a favor." After she had finished explaining Ayame turned her eyes to the floor.

She couldn't look at her mother anymore. The strain of being so nervous was making her feel tired and numb inside. However, she had one last thing she had to say. "I...I...also was never disrespectful to you and Father. I simply made a decision for myself for once. I don't think that was wrong." She looked up now, she couldn't have expected what happened next. "Whack!" Emi had slapped her.

Ayame grabbed the side of her face, it stung so badly. Her vision went blurry with unshed tears. She heard Hikaru ask Emi to leave and she felt Karou's hand on her shoulder as he came to her side. Emi's voice was still just as cold as earlier. Though she made no attempt to sound polite. "How dare you talk back to me. Your father and I gave you everything and you threw it all away. You are nothing, worthless, a piece of trash. I regret ever giving birth to something as disgusting as you. You will never have anything. It's no wonder your father and I could never love you, no one ever could, or ever will."

Ayame shut her eyes as tightly as she could. She didn't want to cry. But, her mother's words cut deeply into her and reopened old wounds. Seeing her in so much pain Kaoru could not keep quiet any longer. "That's enough!" By now Haruhi and the twins' mom had walked over to see what was going on.

"You insult Ayame, but, the truth is you're only angry because she didn't take you putting her down. You're nothing but a simple minded bully. You're disgusting." Ayame opened her eyes and laid her hand on Kaoru's hand that rested on her shoulder. She whispered so that only Kaoru could hear, "thank you."

Emi looked like she was about to explode. Before she could yell at kaoru, however, the twins' mom stepped in. "I suggest you leave, or do I need to have security show you out?" Emi did her best to calm herself so that she looked just as cold as before. She wasn't about to be embarrassed by having security throw her out. "I'll show myself out, thank you." She turned and was walking away when Ayame remembered something. She let go of Kaoru's hand to go after her mother before she walked out the door. Kaoru followed after Ayame.

"Wait, Mother." Emi stopped but did not turn around, she let Ayame talk to her back. "I'm sure you know that I have been calling the house to ask about Father's dog. I'd like to buy him. He's getting old, I know Father is growing tired of him." Emi did not turn around, so, Ayame did not see her grinning. "You're right, he is growing tired of that thing. However, he has already found a buyer for it. He's going to sell it to a research fascility. At least that way it will have served some purpose before it dies."

Ayame went into a panic. She grabbed her mother's arm and turned her so she could face her. "Father can't do that! The dog will be tortured!" Emi grinned wider. "Well it's not up to me. It's up to your Father and you know how hard it is to get him to change his mind once it's made up. Besides, you could never afford the price your father is asking for it."

Kaoru gently pulled on Ayame's hand so she would let go of her mother's arm. He did not take his eyes off of Ayame as he spoke to her mother. "I'd like to speak to your husband. I'm sure he'd sell if he was offered more than his asking price." Emi looked pleased with herself, "No. He said the deal with the fascility was final. Now, if you'll excuse me, my car and driver are waiting for me outside."

Ayame felt her chest tightening. She was having trouble breathing. She took several deep breaths to calm herself. Kaoru noticed. "Are you okay?" Ayame turned to face Kaoru. She had to look up so she could look into his eyes. He looked so worried. She felt guilty that he'd been dragged into it.

She looked to the floor. "I'm sorry, Kaoru, thank you for helping me out back there. But you shouldn't have had to. I should have stood up for myself." She laughed sarcastically. "I wanted to save my Father's dog, but I can't even save myself." Kaoru didn't like that she was now belittling herself. But before he could say something to make her feel better she asked him to take her home and walked back to the dressing room.

The ride to Ayame's apartment was quiet. Ayame sat near the window and stared out the entire time. Her face was completely blank. Kaoru sat next to her, wishing he knew what to say. When they arrived at Ayame's apartment she stepped out of the car, bowed at the waist and thanked the twins for the ride home. Haruhi and the boys watched from the car as she walked up the steps to her apartment and went inside. Kaoru didn't wait longer than a second after she'd closed her front door before he opened the car door. His brother looked at him questioningly, "Kaoru?" Kaoru gave his twin a weak smile, "I'm going to stay here for a while. I'll call for a car to take me home."

Hikaru only nodded his approval. Ayame heard the knock on her door and felt annoyed all over again. She really didn't feel like talking or seeing anyone anymore today. She opened the door ready to bite the head off of the person on the other side. But, that's not what happened. Instead, she looked up to see Kaoru's face. He still had that pained expression on his face that made her feel guilty because he worried about her.

Ayame felt that he shouldn't worry about her. No one should have to worry about her. She was supposed to be able to take care of herself. Kaoru looked into Ayame's red and puffy eyes and thought, "she's been crying. What can I do to make this right?" He put a finger under her chin and moved closer to her. He put one arm around her shoulders and one hand on the back of her head and pulled her close to him so he could hold her. Ayame was surprised.

At first she didn't know what to do. She felt so overwhelmed with everything that had happened. She did what her body told her to do. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held tightly. Then the tears came again. Kaoru rested his chin on top of her head as she cried on him. After about a minute Kaoru thought of something he hoped would make her laugh. "I hope those are real tears this time and not eye drops again or else you'll never get the stain out of this shirt."

Ayame did laugh and pulled away slightly without moving her arms so that she could look up at him. "I should teach you to wash your own clothes one day." Kaoru smiled. Ayame let go of Kaoru's waist so that she could grab his hand. "Let's go inside. We probably look weird standing out here." Kaoru hadn't expected her hand to feel so soft. Kaoru noticed right away that the apartment was small. In this first room there was only a sofa and a TV across from it with a coffee table in the middle.

The coffee table, however, was covered with Ayame's clothes. Kaoru looked at Ayame and raised an eyebrow at her. She let go of his hand and picked up her pile of clothes. "Don't look at me like that! I spend all day cleaning up after you and your brother. I don't exactly come home feeling like cleaning up after myself. Besides, I live alone, so it doesn't matter." Kaoru sat down on the sofa while Ayame carried her clothes through the kitchen and into her bedroom.

She came back a few minutes later with two cups of tea. She handed one to Kaoru and took a sip of her own. Kaoru took a sip of his and set the cup down before he turned to Ayame. "So, what are we going to do? That dog really means a lot to you, right?" Ayame sat down on the sofa next to Kaoru and set down her own cup.

"Yeah, he does. He has been in my life since I was about seven years old. My father bought him when he was a puppy, just so he could brag that he had a pure bred rottweiler from champion lines. But, he was something completely different to me. At first I would just pass by his kennel, I ignored him like everyone else. But it didn't take long for me to notice how sad he looked. I knew how he felt. I may not have been locked in a kennel all the time, but I still knew what it was like to feel alone. So, I ended up sneaking into his kennel every chance I got. I used to read to him a lot. That was one of the only two times I ever disobeyed my parents." Ayame sighed, remembering.

"I got into a lot of trouble for doing that. But, it wasn't long until my father just didn't care anymore. He would have allowed the dog to starve to death, just to be rid of him, but I took over his care. I would even take him out for walks when my father was away on business." Kaoru spoke during the pause in her story. "So, you saved him." Ayame smiled, "truthfully, in a way, we saved one another. He saved me from being completely alone all those years. But, I don't know how to save him this time."

Ayame started to cry again. She tilted her head back and let the tears fall. Kaoru laid his hand on hers. "We'll think of something, Ayame, I promise." Ayame wiped at her tears and lifted her head to look at Kaoru. "Thank you, Kaoru, for everything." Kaoru only smiled at her. That's when she noticed the time.

"Kaoru, shouldn't you be heading home? I don't want you to get into trouble." He didn't want to leave her by herself, but she was right. He called for a car. As they waited he made sure to get her thinking of something else. So, he talked about something he knew would get her mind off the dog. "I noticed that you had a dress in that pile of clothes you took to your bedroom. Do you think you'd like to model it for me?" He grinned.

Ayame looked annoyed, which, is what he was going for. If she was annoyed then she wouldn't be sad. "No way. I don't even know why I still have that thing. I'm going to burn it. I'm going to go get it right now, take it outside, and burn it." Ayame rose from the sofa, her face was serious, which only made Kaoru laugh.

"I bet you look great in it. I bet if you were to wear it to the club everyone, except for Haruhi of course, would go gaga over you. Especially the boss." Kaoru had hooked her. "You really think so? Ooohhh Tamaki's just so handsome...and so charming!" Ayame stared off into space as she thought about wearing the dress to the club and having Tamaki caress her cheek with his finger as he stared into her eyes and told her she looked beautiful.

Kaoru watched her and tried not to laugh. "I knew she was a fan of Tamaki, but I've never seen her stare off into space like that. It's actually funny." Ayame plopped onto the sofa next to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. He blushed. "What was that for?" Ayame smiled. "To thank you, for trying to cheer me , and don't get the wrong idea about how I am a fan of Tamaki's. I don't like him as anything more than a host and friend. He's a lot of fun, but I'd never date a guy like that."

Kaoru was curious, "so what kind of guy would you date?" Ayame didn't get to answer because there was a knock on the door. It was the driver of the car Kaoru had called for. Kaoru and Ayame bid each other goodnight and Kaoru left with the driver. As he rode alone in the back of the car he couldn't stop himself from wondering what Ayame's answer would have been.

It was the day after Ayame had gone to model for the twins' mom. Ayame came to a stop at the doors to Music Room 3. She almost wasn't going to go to the club today. But, she needed something to distract her from worrying about the dog. She opened the doors and was not surprised to see she was the first guest. Other than her first day in the club she was always the first guest. The hosts were gathered around Tamaki, their usual greeting formation. Kaoru and Hikaru immediately went to her side. They guided her to a sofa. Haruhi followed after them. Leaving the others completely oblivious as to what was going on. Tamaki wasn't sure he was too happy that the twins had snatched up a guest that he usually entertained.

"What's with taking off with Ayame like that?" The twins both stared daggers at him. "For your information, boss, she had a very bad experience yesterday and we are trying to console her." Tamaki felt guilty and went off into his corner. He began to mutter, "I could have helped if you guys would just ask me to." Ayame didn't want to be the cause of a fight amongst them. She addressed Tamaki, "Tamaki, it's not something anyone can help me with, so don't feel bad okay?" Tamaki didn't move from his corner but he did look at her with a serious face with just a touch of curiosity. Kyoya sat across from the twins and Ayame.

He wrote in his black book, but, he also paid close attention to what was being said. Haruhi went to Tamaki in an attempt to get him out of the corner before guests started to arrive. Ayame started, "I tried calling my parents again last night. It was no surprise when they still woudn't answer my calls." It was Kaoru who replied, "maybe we can buy him once he's been sold to the fascility?" Ayame didn't even want to think about it anymore. But she just couldn't get the dog out of her head.

"No. There's no way of knowing which one he'd been sold to." Hikaru was confused. "Wait, buy who from where? I thought you were just upset over what your mom did yesterday?" Kaoru explained what had been said yesterday after Ayame and him had walked away from the rest of the group. "Oh wow, that's just mean," was Hikaru's response.

After hearing Kaoru's explanation of the situation Kyoya stood. He calmly closed his black book and tucked it under his arm. Then he proceeded to walk out of the room. He said nothing. That is, until Tamaki finally got up from his corner and yelled at him as he headed out the door. "Kyoya, where are you going? You can't leave now! The club will be open for business soon!"

Kyoya gave him an angry look, "I have some business to attend to and it does not concern you, therefore I suggest you go back to your corner and leave me be." It wasn't long after Kyoya had left that guests started to arrive. Ayame put on a smiling face. She didin't want to ruin the mood of the Host stayed with the twins for the rest of the club activities. No one heard from Kyoya or even knew where he'd gone to.

It was nearing the end of club activities. Still, no one had heard from Kyoya. Everything was calm and quiet. The guests were content. But it wasn't meant to last. "Kyaaa!" One of the girls screamed. The scream was followed immediately afterward by all of the female guests screaming.

A large, black, muzzled dog had ran in through the doors of the music room. Honey and Mori were the first ones to try to grab it. Honey managed to grab it's collar, but it was so big it simply started to take Honey for a ride. The dog ran about the room madly. Mori stepped in immediately and managed to grab hold of the collar, stopping the dog in it's tracks. It turned to face the man that held him before it slipped off it's collar. Honey managed to get off the dog before it took off running again. While all of

this craziness went on Ayame tried to stand but the twins stood in front of her in order to keep her safe. But it didn't work. The dog charged at them. Ayame pushed the twins aside and was knocked over when the dog jumped on her. It made strange sounds as it breathed through the muzzle. It was unable to pant with the muzzle on. The dog sniffed her all over, it's eyes wide with excitement. Ayame sat up on the sofa and unbuckled the muzzle. "Don't do that!" Everyone yelled at her. But she didn't care. She pulled off the muzzle and was dog licked her face over and over and wagged his stump of a tail. Ayame explained in between licks, "this...is...my...Father's...dog...I don't....know....how he got...here." Finally the dog stopped licking her. Ayame was so very pleased, and it showed in her smile. "I don't get why he was muzzled either." The dog got up on the sofa and laid his front paws and head on Ayame's lap.

One of the girls asked, "umm now that he's calmed down, may we pet him? He looks kind of cute." Ayame smiled at the girl, "of course you can pet him. He's as gentle as a kitten. He loves attention." The girls went crazy over the big dog wagging his stump and giving them a toothy smile. Hikaru and Kaoru sat back down next to Ayame. The dog stood and started walking up to everyone extending his paw for handshakes. All the girls, and Tamaki, were loving him. "You say he's as gentle as a kitten? He's got to be at least a hundred pounds," Hikaru commented. Ayame smiled at him, "actually he weighs about a hundred and ten pounds. He's a big boy but he's innocent. But I still don't get how he got here." Kaoru looked at her, "what does it matter? Now he's here, and safe." Ayame looked at the dog, who was now completely hers. "You're right. That's what matters. But, now I have to think of a name for him. I don't want to just keep calling him dog." Kaoru had an idea. "Name him something from that anime you like so much. Name him Inuyasha." Ayame shook her head, "nah, too long of a name. How about if I name him Koga? I like that name for a dog."

Club activities came to an end and the guests had left. Now the hosts themselves and Ayame were getting read to leave. Kyoya finally walked through the club doors. The front of his uniform was covered with mud and he held a leather leash missing the clip on the end, in his hand. The dog, now named Koga, ran to him to greet him. However, Kyoya was not as pleased to see him, he merely had to glare at him and Koga ran back to Ayame whinning. Tamaki was the first to ask, "where have you been?" Kyoya only ignored him. He walked up to Ayame. She asked him, "you brought him here, didn't you?" Kyoya sounded tired. "Yes. I spoke with your mother. I told her I wanted to purchase the...beast...for a friend. She was only more than happy to relinquish him over to me. However, she also had a muzzle put on him before I was allowed to take him. Although I didn't quite understand why. He didn't appear aggressive to me." Ayame knew why. Her mother had always hated Koga. Ayame was still confused about one thing, however. "How did you get covered in mud?" Kyoya glared at the dog that sat beside Ayame. Koga gave him an open mouthed dog grin. "That beast. The moment we stepped foot on the grounds of the academy he started to run and ended up dragging me until his leash broke off. I assume from there he must have followed your scent until he found you. I went searching through out the school for him until I finally came to see if he'd somehow found his way here." Kyoya pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry he did that to you Kyoya. But we're both so very happy you brought us back together." Ayame's smile almost matched her dog's. "I'll pay you back what you paid for him, I promise." Kyoya dropped his hand from his nose. "Actually, I had a different form of payment in mind." Ayame tilted her head.

Kyoya explained, "my parents are attending a party this Friday and I do not care to attend it with them. If you would agree to entertain me for the evening I would consider your debt settled." Ayame looked even more confused, if not a little worried. "What do you mean by entertain you?" Kyoya smiled ever so slightly. "I would like for you and I to go out together." Ayame looked surprised, "you mean you want to go out on a date?" Kyoya smiled at her, "if you wish to call it that, then, yes." Ayame nodded, "okay, I guess that's fair." She took out a piece of paper from her backpack and on it she wrote her address. They agreed on the time for Kyoya to pick her up before the twins called to her from the doors."Ayame, hurry it up, if you want to ride with us back to the house." Ayame smiled at Kyoya before she walked away. Koga followed closely behind her.


	5. Chapter 5

Kyoya arrived prompltly at 7 pm. He climbed the steps to Ayame's apartment and knocked on the door. What happened next he hadn't expected. The door opened, but it wasn't Ayame that greeted him. Instead, the large rottweiler, Koga, gave him a very cheerful greeting by jumping on him, wagging his stub of a tail, and licking his face. "Oh, Kyoya, you're here already," Ayame appeared in the doorway wearing a pale blue dress with spagetti straps. The dress went just passed her knees and on her feet she wore a pair of blue sandals.

"Yes, umm, Ayame, could you get your dog off of me before he licks my face off?" Ayame laughed. "Sorry about him," she grabbed Koga's collar and put him inside. Before shutting the door she bent down so she was face to face with the dog. Kyoya just happened to look down...and suddenly he couldn't take his eyes off of her butt. However, he still heard what she said next, "now, you be a good boy while Mommy goes somewhere with Kyoya, okay?" The dog barked in reply. Ayame straightened up and Kyoya diverted his eyes and started to blush. "How could I have let myself do that?"

Kyoya could hardly believe he'd allowed himself to oggle a girl like that. Shutting the door behind herself, Ayame turned to Kyoya and noticed his red cheeks, "are you alright?" Kyoya faked a cough, "yes, I'm fine. I'm just a little warm." Ayame accepted the response and then asked, "so, where are we going?" "You'll find out soon enough." He led the way to the car waiting for them. A thought came to him and he chuckled to himself.

"What's so funny?" "Do you always talk to your dog like that? As if he were a child?" Ayame looked annoyed at his remark. "As a matter of fact, yes, I do. Do you have a problem with it, Ootori?" Kyoya looked at her face, he hadn't meant to upset her. "Actually, I think it's sweet." Smiling, she asked, "Do you want me to talk to you that way too?" "No, please don't."

The driver held open the back door to the black Mercedes so the two of them could slide in. It was quiet for a while, Kyoya felt he should say something. "You look very lovely tonight." "Ugh, I guess...I mean...thank you, but I haven't worn anything like this for a while. Why did you get to wear jeans when you told me to wear a dress?" Ayame tugged at the dress where it lay flat against her stomach.

Kyoya looked down at his blue jeans, white long sleeved collared shirt with the sleeves folded up to his elbows and tennis shoes. "I wanted to see you dressed nicely, that's why." She was surprised by his blundt answer. Very little else was said between the two as they rode in the car. Ayame stared out the car window while Kyoya watched her without her knowing."What happened after that night? What is she hiding?" Kyoya kept his thoughts to himself.

Soon afterward they arrived at a movie theater. Ayame finally looked at Kyoya, "are we doing dinner and a movie?" Smiling, Kyoya said, "yes, we are. I thought you'd appreciate a commoner's type of date." "I guess it could be fun." The driver held open the door for them to step out of the car. "Ummm Kyoya, what movie are we going to see?" They walked toward the ticket booth and Kyoya pulled out his wallet.

"I thought we'd watch a horror film this evening." He looked at the young girl selling the tickets, "two tickets please." The girl blushed and thought, "wow that girl with him is so lucky, he's so cute!" Inside the theater Kyoya ordered a soda and popcorn for the two of them (he figured it was standard movie food). Although, Ayame made sure to ask for two straws. Afterward everything continued to go smoothly. That is, until near the end of the movie.

On the screen a woman was in a dark attic. She was laying on her stomach on the floor. She was trying hard to be quiet, but she was breathing so loud. A mutant was somewhere in the room but all that could be seen was the woman's face. Then she screamed as she was dragged by something from behind, clawing away at the wooden floor as she went. "KYYAAA!" Ayame screamed at the exact moment that the woman on the screen screamed. She instinctively grabbed Kyoya's arm and buried her face into his shoulder.

Kyoya was not surprised by what had just happened on the was, however, slightly surprised by Ayame's response. He looked down at her holding his arm, her face hidden. He couldn't stop himself from smiling. Ayame lifted her head in time to see his smile. She hadn't intended to grab him like that, she just freaked out with the movie. Now seeing him smile like that she jerked herself away from him and began to blush.

She turned her face away from him so he couldn't see the expression on her face. "Why is he smiling like that? Oh my gosh he looks so good when he smiles like that! Wait, what if he planned all of this? What if he figured I'd grab onto him and now he's smiling cause he's trying not to laugh? Oh who cares, I can't get his smiling face out of my head now!"

"Ayame, the movie has finished, there's no need to be afraid now." Ayame turned to face Kyoya, he had stood up and was now looking down at her. He was still smiling. "He's still smiling!Does that mean he did plan all of this?" Ayame tried to keep from showing her annoyance as she figured he was enjoying the fact that she had just embarrassed herself by grabbing him. Suddenly, she stood up as she thought of something more pleasant.

She shared her thought with Kyoya. "Do you think Tamaki likes scary movies like this? I would love to come see this movie again with him." Ayame closed her eyes and sighed as she day dreamed about screaming and grabbing a hold of Tamaki at the scary part of the , in her imaginary scenario Tamaki would carry her out of the movie theater after she screamed and then treat her to ice cream. Kyoya was now annoyed. "I wouldn't know what types of movies that idiot likes."Kyoya turned and headed toward the exit.

"Ah, that's not nice Kyoya, you shouldn't call your best friend an idiot." Ayame followed after him. Once outside Ayame noticed that there wasn't a car waiting for them. "Are we walking?" "Yes, we are, where we are having dinner is not far from here. So, I thought we'd walk." "Okay. I just thought a priveledged boy like yourself would despise walking anywhere."

Ayame smiled, she was only teasing. "I may be priveledged, but I am certainly not spoiled. It is my opinion that it is the daughters of wealthy families that are spoiled. Wouldn't you agree?" Kyoya was teasing her back. She had, afterall, come from a very wealthy family.

Although, she certainly was not wealthy now. Ayame wore her annoyed look once again. "No, Ootori, I certainly do not agree. I was never spoiled." She stuck her tongue out at Kyoya like a spoiled child in an attempt to make him smile. It worked. He thought, "it is true, however, while she may have come from a priveledged family, she certainly does not act as if she had been spoiled."

As they walked neither one said anything more. Kyoya continued to watch Ayame without her realizing it. She was busy looking into the windows of the different stores they passed. Kyoya was remembering her from a different time, "she hasn't changed much." Kyoya stopped when they arrived at a McDonald's.

Ayame questioned him, "we're going to have hamburgers?" "Yes, as I said before, I thought you would appreciate a commoner's style of evening." She shrugged her shoulders, "okay". Kyoya paid for the hamburgers. Ayame had offered to pay, afterall, he had paid for the movie tickets, but Kyoya insisted he had invited her on the date and therefore it was his duty to pay. Sitting down to eat Ayame tried to start off a conversation. "I actually really like hamburgers. My American friend, who I used to work for and live with, would make them all the time." Kyoya looked at the hamburger he held in his hand. "I see. The are not my favorite food, but, I must admit that they're not too bad."

A moment of awkward silence passed. Kyoya had many questions he wanted to ask her. He was especially curious as to why and how she had cut ties with her family. Even before she was 18. Kyoya munched on a french fry as he thought, "She left the Urashima residence after the evening I met her. That means she was only 16 when she started to live on her own. But why? If she had only stayed, things would have been very different right now." Kyoya wanted to ask her, but he wouldn't dare. She had already made it quite clear before that she would not talk about any of it. After a while he thought of something to at least break the silence.

"So, tell me, Ayame, is this your first date?" Ayame squirmed in her seat a little and poked at a packet of ketchup with her finger. "Not quite, I mean, this is my first time doing dinner and a movie." Kyoya was a little surprised to hear she'd dated before. "So you're previous dates were nicer than this?" She rested her chin in the palm of her hand and looked off into space, "at the time I thought they were very nice. But, I think it doesn't matter what the date is like, or, how much a person spends on you. What matters is having fun with that person and figuring out if you two share a connection."

Ayame stared off into space, remembering. Kyoya watched her and wondered just where her mind wandered off to now. "I assume you've had your first kiss then? Judging by how you've become absorbed by your memories you two must have shared a connection." Ayame snapped back to attention and looked at Kyoya. "No, I haven't had my first kiss. I told him I wouldn't kiss him until he stopped smoking. He wouldn't so we never kissed. At the time...I was stupid enough to think I was in love with him."

Ayame twisted a ketchup packet in her hands. Kyoya was still curious, "Am I to assume you two broke up? How did it happen?" Ayame took her focus off of twisting the ketchup packet in her hands for a second to look up at Kyoya. "Nuh uh, Ootori, I'm not going to give you details. We broke up, but that's all I'm saying." She went back to twisting the ketchup packet. Kyoya went back to thinking to himself. "She is single, I'm glad."

He took a sip from his soda and watched her twisting the ketchup packet. "Ayame, I don't think you should be doing that..." "SPLAT!" The ketchup packet finally exploded. Part of it ended up on Kyoya's glasses and part of it was on the front of Ayame's dress. Along with part of it being on the table in front of them. "Hahahaha!" Ayame bursted out laughing.

Kyoya, on the otherhand, looked annoyed. He removed his glasses and used a paper napkin to wipe off the ketchup. "Why on earth are you laughing?" Ayame wheezed out, "because...I...I told Kaoru...haha...I told kaoru I hated this dress and I was going to burn it. Now it's ruined so I don't even have to burn it! Hahaha!" Kyoya shook his head and said to himself, "she's stranger than I originally thought." He smiled slightly and thought, "but I rather like that." Ayame stopped laughing so she could catch her breath.

"I guess we should go now, I'm covered in ketchup. Plus, I want to call Kaoru and tell him about the dress! He's going to laugh." She smiled, stood, and held out her hand to Kyoya. "Thank you for tonight, it was fun. I'm very happy we could meet again and get to be friends." Kyoya took her hand and she pulled slightly to help him to his feet.

Once he was standing she let go of his hand. "I want to be more than just friends," thought Kyoya. They walked outside together, and Ayame was not surprised to see a car waiting for them. "I knew a spoiled boy like you wouldn't be willing to walk home," Ayame teased again. "The car is not for my sake. I didn't want you to be embarrassed by walking around with a huge ketchup stain on your dress. Who on earth is dumb enough to twist a ketchup packet until it explodes anyhow?"

Ayame laughed, "You're the one that went out on a date with the girl dumb enough to twist a ketchup packet until it exploded!" "Good point." The two climbed into the back of the car. The ride home was spent talking about the movie. Although, Ayame made certain not to mention her grabbing onto Kyoya's arm.


	6. Chapter 6

The morning after her date with Kyoya, Ayame wasn't sure what to feel. She was replaying the night before in her mind as she walked up to the large mansion where she worked as a house keeper for the Hitachiin family. "I still can't believe I grabbed onto him like that. Then he smiled at me..." Ayame's thought trailed off as she remembered the night before. She suddenly couldn't keep herself from blushing as she remembered the feel of his bicep under his cotton shirt.

"Oh and when he smiled I thought I was going to melt into my seat!" Ayame realized her thoughts had made her cheeks feel hot, she didn't want anyone to see her blushing so hard. She paused at the back door, which led into the kitchen, "Okay, I have to calm down before one of the employees sees me, or worse, the twins, they'll make fun of me for sure!" She took in a few deep breaths and reached for the door handle. "Good morning Ayame!" The twins burst through the door like a pair of overly excited dogs welcoming their master home, their energy was too much for Ayame this morning.

"Ack!" Ayame's hair stood on end as she screamed and fell back on her butt. "Wha...what are you guys doing up this early? Isn't it Saturday?" The boys nodded in unison and Kaoru held out his hand to help Ayame to her feet. "We have plans with the rest of the Host Club for today, so we had to be up early," said Hikaru. Ayame smiled, "that sounds fun. Ooohhh I wonder what Tamaki will be wearing...oh I guess it doesn't really matter, he could wear a sheet and he'd still look good." As she thought about Tamaki Ayame's eyes drifted close, she cupped her face in her hands, smiled and she appeared to be day dreaming. The boys laughed, "earth to Ayame." "The boss doesn't look that good you know," added Kaoru.

"That's your opinion, to me he's like something out of a dream. Now, if you'll excuse me I have work to do." Ayame pushed through the two boys and into the kitchen. They watched her as she set to work. "She sure is weird, don't you think, Kaoru?" Hikaru whispered to his brother standing next to him. "She's something, but I don't think it's weird," replied Kaoru.

Hikaru looked at his brother, "then what would you call her?" Kaoru hadn't been paying attention to the little conversation he and Hikaru had been having. Instead, he had been intently watching Ayame as she walked through the kitchen. "Ummm, I don't know, aren't we supposed to be getting ready to leave to join the others? We still have to go pick up Haruhi." Hikaru easily forgot his brother's comment at the mention of Haruhi. He was looking forward to spending time with her. "You're right, let's go," said Hikaru.

After gathering the cleaning supplies she needed from the small closet in the kitchen, Ayame decided to start her duties upstairs. She walked out of the kitchen where she had greeted the male cook, she walked through the formal dining room, up the stairs with the shiny golden bannister (it shined because she polished it every day), and down the long hallway. She thought to herself as she walked, "the twins should be gone by now, I don't think my heart could take it if they jumped out and surprised me like that again." Ayame stopped when she passed by the bathroom and heard the shower running. The boys often left the shower on even after they had left the bathroom.

"GRRRRR, as if they didn't do enough to me this morning. I swear I should just leave their bathroom a mess, why do I have to be picking up after high school aged boys?" Ayame opened the door (it was always kept closed) "Damn it Michelle, you had promised me you'd found me a good job." Ayame didn't bother at first to turn off the blaring radio that sat on the counter. She ignored the clothes on the floor , another way the twins acted like toddlers, in her opinion, and went straight toward the shower. After she pushed aside the midnight blue tinted glass shower door...she gasped at what she saw. Kaoru stood in the shower, his hair completely slicked back from being wet...and he was completely nude.

Kaoru quickly closed the sliding glass door, his face now red from embarrassment. Ayame stood stunned with her mouth open...she didn't know what to say or do...so she did what her gut told her to do and she ran. She ran down the long hallway, down the stairs with the shiny bannister, through the dining room, and through the kitchen where the male cook now questioned to himself what could possibly be wrong. Ayame stopped once she was outside, she sat down on the small step right outside the door in an attempt to calm herself "what am I going to do? I saw...everything." Ayame's face blushed bright red as she thought of how much she had seen of Kaoru just now in the shower.

"What if he tells his parents? What if they fire me? I need this job!" Ayame started to panic...but still...she couldn't get the image of Kaoru out of her mind. "Stop freaking out, will you? No one is going to fire you," Ayame froze as she heard Kaoru's voice coming from behind her. She turned around, stood, and bowed at the waist to him, "I'm so sorry Kaoru, I...I didn't see anything...honest." Though as she lied about what she'd seen her face gave her away as she began to blush again from thinking of what she'd just seen. Kaoru gently placed his fingers under her chin and pushed her face up so he could look into her eyes. Ayame blushed even more...he was wearing a large towel that reached down to his ankles tied at his waist, she couldn't help herself, now seeing him shirtless she started thinking of him in the shower yet again.

Kaoru grinned. Ayame stood up straight, she knew that grin...he was planning something. Was he going to punish her somehow? Blackmail her into doing something? "Wha...what do you want?" Ayame tentatively asked. Kaoru smiled..."I will not tell a soul about what just happened in there...if you go out on a date with me." Ayame let her shoulders slump forward, "what is wrong with you Host Club boys and making me go out on dates with you?" Kaoru looked confused, "someone else has made you go out on a date with him?" Ayame stood up straight, "yeah, Kyoya made me go out on a date with him because he bought my father's dog for me. Didn't he tell you?"

Kaoru looked annoyed, "no, he didn't. Wait, is that when you got ketchup on your dress? You told me you had gone out with a friend, you never said it was Kyoya!" Ayame clasped her hands together behind her back, making herself look innocent. "Well, I didn't tell you because I thought if I did you'd make fun of me. I figured you'd tease me that I like him or something."

Kaoru looked her in the eye, "well, do you? Like him I mean." Ayame tried to make her face look blank. Although, she was also desperately trying not to think about grabbing onto Kyoya and his smile the evening before. "No! He's just a friend to me. Oh...Kaoru...please don't tell anyone I went out with Kyoya, okay? If he's not telling other people about it then I'd rather not tell anyone either." Kaoru agreed.

"There you are Kaoru! Why haven't you gotten dressed? Hurry up, we're going to be late!" Hikaru now appeared behind the pair, he had no idea of what had just taken place. Kaoru turned "alright, I'm going, I was just commenting to Ayame on how clean the shower is," he now turned to Ayame, "it looks really nice in there, don't you think?" Ayame looked to the ground and blushed. But then a thought came to her. "Do you think I could do something to get Tamaki to make me go out on a date with him?" Ayame's eyes closed again, she cupped her face in her hands, smiled and once again went into her dream world. Kaoru didn't care to know what she was thinking...so he left her there in her fantasy and went to his room to get dressed. He made sure to lock the door behind himself.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a beautiful day in the snow. The Host Club, including Ayame, had decided to spend their weekend at a home owned by the Hitachiin family in the mountains. Ayame walked outside of the house and into the cold. Kyoya walked with her. The twins went on ahead of them with skiis in their hands. Tamaki did the same, although he dragged Haruhi along with him. Honey and Mori went to build a snow man. Ayame breathed in the crisp air and watched as her breath came out in a puff. She said to Kyoya, "I haven't had a day in the snow in years. Koga's never been out to the snow." Kyoya smiled slightly, "well he certainly seems to be enjoying himself." The large dog was rolling in the snow next to Honey and Mori. Ayame laughed, "he is loving this! He may be nearing eleven years old already but he still acts just like a puppy."

Kyoya smiled down at her again, "what would you like to do?" Ayame looked up at him, "I really have no idea. I think maybe I'll go help Honey sempai and Mori sempai build their snowman." Kyoya watched her walk away in her, surprisingly, pink jacket and pink snow boots. They actually had been a gift from the twins, their way of inviting her on this trip, but, Kyoya didn't know that. Ayame stopped to rub Koga's belly. "After we finish this snow man can we make a dog snow man? We can use Koga as a model." Honey giggled at the thought while Mori only nodded.

Ayame had just started to help Honey roll a big ball of snow for the head of the snow man when the twins called to her. "Come skii with us!" Ayame didn't even bother to look up, "I can't, I'm busy." But they were not about to take no for an answer. Kaoru suddenly appeared behind her and Hikaru was in front. Kaoru took hold of her under her arms while Hikaru took hold of her ankles. They carried her up a small hill that way. They each strapped in one of her feet to the skiis. Once they were finished Ayame sat down. "Ayame, you're supposed to stand up and slide down on the skiis," said Kaoru. Ayame shook her head, "no way! It's bad enough you guys gave me a pink jacket, pink boots, and even pink gloves. There's no way you're going to get me to skii! I'm too scared I'll fall." She looked up at the twins with a confused look, "why did you get me pink anyways?" The twins gave her the same confused look, "you're a girl, that's why! Now stand up." They took hold of her, one of them on each arm, and stood her up. She started to slide off of the hill, screaming. She slid down and once she was nearing the bottom she was trying to figure out how to stop.

The twins had told her how, but, in her panic she had forgotten. So, when she reached the bottom of the hill she simply leaned back until she fell back on her butt. She heard the twins laughing as they skiied down the hill toward her. She gripped some snow in her hand and waited for them. As soon as they were close enough she threw the ball of snow at them. They easily dodged it. They said together, "so it's a snoball fight you want?" "Uh, oh," Ayame had realized she'd made a mistake. "Two against one is not a fair fight!" She undid her skiis and started to run when she heard Koga barking. She turned to see the dog chasing the twins. He was only playing, of course.

Ayame bent over laughing. "That's what you guys get for messing with his mommy!" She called Koga to her and rubbed his ears while he wagged his stump. She didn't notice the twins sneaking up on her until she saw Koga prick up his ears and start barking again. She turned around and was hit by two snow balls. Koga immediately gave chase. Ayame scooped up snow and started to chase after them as well. They ended up splitting up, however, and while Koga chased after Hikaru, Kaoru ended up getting hit by a snow ball Ayame made. Ayame stopped after that and bent over, wheezing slightly. Kaoru walked up to her, "are you okay? Do you need to take a break?" Ayame stood up and smiled, "I'm okay."

She put some snow on his head and started to run again. He chased after her into the trees surrounding the property. He ran after her and was right behind her, he wanted to put snow in her hair like she'd done to him, when she stopped suddenly. Kaoru tried to stop, but he ended up slipping in the snow and the two of them fell. Ayame had stopped because they had come to the top of a small hill. Now that they were falling they rolled together down the hill. They came to a stop at the bottom with Kaoru on top of Ayame. They landed in a rather awkward position, that is, Kaoru was on top of Ayame, but his face was also directly on top of hers. Their foreheads, and lips, were touching.

Kaoru pulled himself up and off Ayame, immediately. He had felt they way they had landed, would she be mad at him? Ayame opened her eyes and rubbed at the back of her head before she did something odd. She started to laugh. She sat up and looked at Kaoru who knelt beside her. "That was actually kind of fun. Except next time you want to roll down a hill make sure we're not doing it right on top of one another." Kaoru smiled at her. So she hadn't even noticed the way they'd landed. Kaoru pulled Ayame to her feet.

He noticed something on the ground. He picked it up. Ayame took it out of his hand, "ah, that's my inhaler. I guess it fell out of my pocket." Kaoru looked at her, "you need an inhaler?" Ayame tucked the thing back into her pocket. "Yeah, I have asthma. I rarely use the inhaler though. But I carry it around just in case." Kaoru looked up the hill. "Well I guess we should try getting back up, it's not that big so it shouldn't be that hard." He started walking up the hill. Ayame followed after him.

They were half way up when Ayame slipped and slid down the hill on her stomach, feet first. She sat at the bottom. "Okay, I hate the snow!" Kaoru laughed, "here hold my hand and I'll help you up." Ayame looked up and him before taking hold of his hand. "Promise me you won't let go and let me fall again?" Kaoru gave her a smile, "I promise. You're safe with me." Ayame smiled up at him and let him pull her to her feet. They walked up the hill holding hands.

Ayame nearly slipped again but Kaoru managed to keep her standing. Once at the top of the hill they looked at one another, still holding hands, Ayame smiled and gently pulled her hand away first. They walked together to join the others in silence. Only smiling at one another every now and then. Kaoru couldn't stop thinking of they way they'd fallen. His lips had actually touched hers. Had she really not noticed? Kaoru snapped back to attention when Ayame said something to him. "I wonder if what just happened back there counts as a first kiss." Ayame looked up at nothing in particular as she thought about it. Kaoru looked surprised. "You mean you actually felt it?" Ayame laughed at his reaction. "Yeah, of course I felt it. Your lips touched mine. It's not like we meant for it to happen. If it freaks you out that much we can keep it our little secret." She smiled at him. Kaoru was about to say something when he heard Koga barking. They had reached the others. The dog ran up to Ayame and started to whine excitedly as she rubbed his back.

Hikaru walked up to his brother, "where did you guys go?" Kaoru looked at Hikaru, "we just ran into the trees that's all." Honey ran up to Ayame with Mori walking behind him. "Aya-chan! We're going back to the house for hot chocolate!" Ayame smiled and let Honey lead her back to the house with the twins and the others walking behind them.

Later on that night the Host club, and Ayame, had settled into the sofas in the living room watching a video and drinking hot chocolate. It was getting late. Honey yawned and he and Mori headed up stairs to go to bed. It wasn't long before Tamaki and Haruhi went up as well. As they walked toward the stairs Tamaki put his arms around Haruhi and asked her, "Would you like to sleep with Daddy tonight? I can protect you if the boogeyman comes." Haruhi pinched one of his hands and said with an annoyed look, "no way in hell, sempai." Tamaki pulled away and whined the rest of the way up the stairs.

Hikaru and Kaoru were about to head to bed when Kaoru realized Ayame had already fallen asleep on the sofa next to him. She had pulled her legs up onto the sofa and her head laid on the arm rest. Kaoru was about to shake her in attempt to wake her when Kyoya stopped him from where he sat. "She appears to be resting quite peacefully. Why bother waking her?" Kaoru looked at Kyoya before leaving the room for a moment. He came back with a blanket and laid if over Ayame.

Kaoru again looked to Kyoya, "are you going to head up to bed too Kyoya-sempai?" Kyoya's answer was short, "In a minute." The twins headed to bed leaving Kyoya and Ayame downstairs. After the twins had left Kyoya allowed himself to watch Ayame sleep. She looked so peaceful. Koga laid on the floor in front of her. Kyoya started to remember her from a different time. Over a year had passed since their first encounter with one another.

It had been a warm evening. After enjoying a gourmet dinner the guests paired up to dance. Kyoya, however, stood beside his father. They were at a party at the Urashima mansion. The entire evening he had been observing the young . He knew her first name to be Ayame, but he would not address her as such. Afterall, this was the first time he'd even seen her in person.

His father had told him to better aquant himself with her. However, the entire evening he had been unable to get near her. She was constantly surrounded by young men interested in her and young women trying to befriend her. The more he watched her, however, the more he noticed she looked lonely. No matter how many people she was surrounded by, she appeared to be lonely. Now, as he watched her from across the room, she excused herself from the group and headed outside.

Kyoya knew this was his chance to speak with her. He followed after her. He followed her outside and around the corner of the mansion so that they were on the side of the house. Her face had softened, she looked content. She was squatting in front of a kennel. In it sat a large black dog. Ayame had squeezed her hand through the chain link in order to rub the dog's ear. Once Kyoya stood beside her she pulled her hand out from the kennel and stood up. Kyoya offered his host smile and spoke first. "Good eveing, Ms. Urashima. Are you enjoying yourself tonight? You certainly look lovely tonight." Ayame looked down at the white summer dress she wore. "I hate what I'm wearing. As for if I'm enjoying myself, no, I'm not. I'm bored out of my mind. I'm tired of those kids in there pretending they're interested in anything other than themselves. Any time I try to talk about anything other than their families finances to the boys they ignore me and change the subject back to what they want to talk about. The girls look at me like I'm insane when I say I'd rather be wearing jeans and a T-shirt than this dress." Ayame sighed.

Kyoya hadn't expected any of that. He was surprised, though he didn't show it. Ayame visibly winced. "Umm, I'm sorry. That was very inappropriate of me to tell you all of that. I actually came out here to say all of that to the dog, he doesn't care if I'm not polite. Again, I'm very sorry." She bowed at the waist to him. Kyoya thought for a moment. "I do not mind, actually. You crave a conversation of something other than finances or clothing, that's understandable." Ayame gave Kyoya a smile.

"Hey, you're Kyoya Ootori, right?" Kyoya had figured she'd recognized him. "Why yes, I am." He gave her a polite smile. "Do you want to take a walk with me? It's such a nice night." Kyoya nodded, "alright." Before they could walk together Ayame turned back to the dog in the kennel. "Mommy's going to take a walk with the nice boy, okay? I'll be back in a little while." Kyoya raised an eyebrow at the strange behavior. Ayame turned back to Kyoya and they started to walk away from the house together.

They came to a long straight bridge over a large koi pond. They started to walk across it. Ayame stopped once they reached the middle and looked down. "I love just standing here and looking into the water at the fish." Kyoya stood beside her and looked down as well. Ayame sighed, "So, you're Kyoya Ootori. You're an excellent student at Ouran Academy. You are expected to work under your two older brothers after graduating. You are at the top of your class, however, you waste your time in something called a Host Club." Kyoya turned slightly and looked down at Ayame who kept her eyes on the water below.

"Ms. Urashima, are you critisizing me?" Ayame looked up at him a slightly annoyed look on her face. "Okay first, Ootori, stop calling me that. It's annoying. My name is Ayame, I give you permission to call me by my first name." Ayame's face softened and she rested her chin on her hand, "second, I wasn't critisizing you. I was only repeating what my father told me about you. He was praising you a great deal earlier this evening. I'm certain your parents told you about me as well?" Kyoya looked down at her, "Ayame Urashima. You are also an excellent student. A very obedient girl. You are expected to study politics after finishing school."

Ayame half laughed and again turned to look down at the water. "I may be expected to do that, but I'm not going to do it." Kyoya was curious. "You have other plans then?" Ayame looked up at him and smiled. "Kyoya, can you keep a secret?" Kyoya nodded, "yes, I can." Ayame's smile widened, "pinky swear it." Kyoya looked puzzled, "what?" Ayame looked serious, "It's something commoners do to agree to keep a secret or promise. Hold out your pinky finger." She held out her pinky finger and after Kyoya did the same she linked their fingers together. Kyoya thought to himself, "she is a little strange."

Ayame turned so that she was leaning back against the railing. "I'm not going to study politics. I'm going to become a veterinarian so I can work with animals. I haven't told my parents yet, they're going to be angry, I'm sure they'll kick me out of the house. That's why I'm going to wait to tell them until I'm 18." She looked up at him and folded her arms across her chest. "You can't say anything either, Kyoya!" Kyoya gave her a smile, "I won't say a word. However, are you certain that's what you want? You'd be living as a commoner. Are you prepared for that type of lifestyle?" Ayame smiled up at him. She looked very confident. "Yes, I want that. Because it would be my choice." For the first time that night Kyoya actually saw her smile happily. "I think you and I are going to be good friends, Kyoya Ootori."

Ayame was the first one to feel a drop of water on her arm. A few seconds later it started to rain. Ayame grabbed Kyoya's hand and led him in the rain to a wooden gazebo. Kyoya was a bit surprised by how she'd grabbed his hand, but he wasn't bothered by it in the least. Once under the shelter of the gazebo they sat down together on a small bench. Ayame turned toward Kyoya. "Oh, you're glasses got all wet, here, let me wipe them off for you." Ayame stood up so that she didn't have to look up when speaking to Kyoya. She started to remove his glasses, despite his protesting. She looked into his eyes once she held his glasses in her hands. She was at eye level to him. Her face only inches from his. "You have really nice eyes, Kyoya Ootori." Kyoya looked at her and smiled. "Don't tell me you're falling for me, Ayame?" Ayame blushed, stood up straight, and stopped wiping his glasses on her dress. "No. I was just saying something nice to you. But if you don't like it I won't say anything nice to you anymore." She pretended to be annoyed. Kyoya chuckled lightly at her response. "I was only teasing." Ayame smiled and handed him back his glasses.

A male servant approached walking under an umbrella. He addressed Ayame. "Ms. Urashima, you're father sent me to search for you and bring you an umbrella. He is about to make a statement and would like for you and Mr. Ootori to be present." Kyoya noticed Ayame's body language changed completely. She no longer wore the same warm smile she had given him only a short time before. Kyoya stood and offered his arm to Ayame before taking the extra umbrella the servant carried. Ayame gave him a smile one more time before putting her arm through his. They walked back to the party that way, sharing the umbrella. Kyoya thought to himself, "perhaps this will turn out to be a pleasant experience."

Once they were back in the ballroom with the other guests Ayame's father tapped the side of a wine glass and cleared his throat. All eyes were on him and Ayame's mother, who stood next to him. Ayame's father spoke loud and clear. "My friends, I hope you are all enjoying yourselfs. Tonight is a very important night. For tonight my wife and I will announce the name of the fine young man we have chosen to marry our daughter, Ayame."

Ayame dropped her arms from holding onto Kyoya's arm. She didn't say a word. She merely ran out of the room. Kyoya was surprised. He wasn't sure how to react. So, he acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He returned to his father's side as he had been earlier. Ayame's father said an apology for Ayame's rude behavior to the guests and the party continued as if nothing had happened.

Ayame stirred on the sofa next to Kyoya. He brought his mind back to the present. Ayame sat up and yawned, pushing the blanket down as she sat up. She looked at Kyoya and smiled sleepily. "What are you still doing up, Kyoya?" Kyoya gave her a smile, "I was simply thinking." Ayame moved to stand up, and stretched her arms over her head. "Oh yeah? About what?" Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "I was thinking about the first time we met." Ayame remained standing. She smiled at Kyoya, though he could easily tell she did so hesitantly. "That was a fun night, wasn't it, Kyoya?"

Kyoya did not return her smile. "Tell me, Ayame, why did you run off before your father could name who you were to be married to?" Ayame's back stiffened, she turned away from Kyoya. "I'm not getting into that." Ayame started to head out of the room. She had just reached the doors when Kyoya's voice stopped her. "You were already seeing someone, weren't you? Isn't that why you refused the arranged marriage? But then why are you not married to him now?" Ayame turned back to Kyoya, tears in the corners of her eyes. "Just stop it. Stop brining up the past. It's already over. I want to forget that night and you should do the same!" Ayame ran upstairs to her guest bedroom, Koga following after her.

Kyoya stood and walked slowly up the stairs. He knocked on the door of the room Ayame was in. Her response showed she was still angry. "Go away, Kyoya Ootori!" Kyoya sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ayame, why must you be so stubborn?" Kyoya was surprised when Ayame opened the door. She stood there in the door way, tears in her eyes. "Kyoya Ootori. Why do you care if I didn't become engaged to some spoiled rich boy that night? You say I'm stubborn but you're the one that won't stop asking questions!" Kyoya looked her in the eye. "Is that what I am to you? A spoiled rich boy?" Kyoya kept his voice calm. Ayame's voice cracked a bit. "'re my friend. Even back then I wanted us to be friends. Because you seemed different."Kyoya sighed. He was still a bit frustrated.

"Yet, while I was good enough to be your friend, I was not good enough to become your husband?" Ayame looked up at him, confused. "Husband? You mean you were the boy my father had chosen for me to marry?" Kyoya nodded, keeping his eyes on hers. Ayame thought for a moment, "come and sit on the bed with me." They sat down together at the foot of the bed. Koga laid down on the bed, pleased that he had the bed to himself for a moment.

Ayame wrapped a blanket around herself. "Tell me, you knew before me, right? That we were to be engaged that night? Yet you accepted it without argument?" Kyoya smiled at her. "At first I had disliked the idea of marrying a girl I barely knew. However, after I met you...my opinion changed." Ayame stayed quiet. Kyoya looked directly into her eyes. "Now, will you tell me why it is that you ran off that night?" Ayame looked down at the floor. "I suppose after I ran off on you like that you do deserve an explanation. It's as you guessed, I was already engaged to someone else. But, it was someone I knew my parents wouldn't approve of." Ayame became quiet again, thinking.

Kyoya hated how she never finished explaining anything of her past. He pressed her for more. "What happened? Why are you not married to him now? Or at least engaged to him?" Ayame looked up at him, she looked tired. "I can't tell you anything more." Kyoya gave her a smile and held up his pinky finger. "Now, I thought you and I were friends. I promise that you can tell me your secret and I will not tell anyone." He looked at her, looked into her eyes, she looked scared. He kept his hand up, waiting. She raised her right hand, tentatively and linked her pinky finger with his. She gave him a weak smile. "I can't say much. But, the night I left home, the same night we met, he did something that hurt me very badly. So I broke up with him." Kyoya looked a bit angry.

"Did he hit you?" Ayame shook her head. "No, he wanted to, but a friend stepped in. But, he did something, I can't say what, and because of what he did...I can't say anything or else he'll hurt someone close to me." Kyoya was a bit surprised by what Ayame had said. He wanted to ask more, but knew she would not answer any more questions or give any more details. He could see she was clearly scared of her ex-fiance. That bothered him, that this person had Ayame scared. But if she wouldn't say anything more, there was not much he could do.

Ayame laid her hand over Kyoya's. "Don't look so worried. I'm okay. I'm safe." Ayame smiled warmly at Kyoya before standing. "We should probably get some sleep." Kyoya said nothing. She stood to close the door behind him as he left the room. They said goodnight to one another before Kyoya walked out of the room. As he walked to his own room Kyoya could not get his mind off of what she'd shared with him.


	8. Chapter 8

The Hitachiin brothers sat in their bedroom watching t.v. together. The day had been boring for them. It had been raining all day, and they hadn't had school. So, they spent the day entertaining themselves. First, they had put a fake rubber snake in the sofa cushions in their living room. So that when Ayame was vaccuuming she would find it.

She, of course didn't find it so amusing and chased them around the house with it. Second, they hid fake cockroaches in their clothes drawers so that when she was putting away their laundry she would find them. Once she saw the cockroaches she simply screamed and ran out of the room. She came back later with the vaccuum cleaner and sucked up the fake bugs. She had thought she was sucking up real bugs, that is, until she heard the twins laughing at her from inside their closet. They had been watching her to see her reaction.

She threw the rubber bugs at them and they ran out of the room laughing. For a while after that things were very quiet. She stopped finding anything, she thought the boys had gotten bored of playing pranks on her. That is, until she started to polish the stair bannister. She had started to rub the bannister with a cloth and noticed that instead of seeing it shine more, it was turning gray. She told herself, "okay, there is no way that I'm taking the color off of this thing." She turned over the cloth to find that the boys had put gray paint on it and since it was wet it was painting the bannister as she wiped. Ayame wanted to pull her hair out, but, instead, she used a clean cloth to wipe off the paint and went to find something else to do.

The twins now sat in their bedroom. They had grown bored of messing with Ayame. That's when the lights went out and somewhere in the house Ayame screamed. Kaoru couldn't see his twin, but he knew he was still sitting on their bed beside him. "Hikaru, you heard that too, right?" "Yeah, where is she? Do you think she's trying to trick us?" Kaoru stood up, "I really doubt it.

She'd probably yell at us, not trick us. I think we should look for her, she might think we did this and get even more mad." Kaoru felt his way to their dresser where he pulled out a pair of flashlights. He handed one to Hikaru. "But, we won't know if she's trying to do anything unless we find her." Hikaru smiled, "Let's make this more fun. First one to find her and scare her before she scares either one of us wins bragging rights. I'll look up here and you look downstairs." Kaoru agreed. Kaoru made his way downstairs carefully. He wanted to make sure he saw anything before it jumped out at him. He went first to the kitchen and walked through the swinging door.

That's where he found her sitting on a stool near the counter. She had a flashlight standing up so that it's beam shone towards the ceiling, dimly lighting the room and she held a red towel in her right hand. He approached her slowly in case she had something set up to jump out at him. However, once he was standing in front of her he realized the towel wasn't red at all. The edges of the towel were white, the red color he saw was blood. Her right hand was bleeding.

"Woah, what happened to you?" "When the power went off I was washing dishes. I freaked when the lights went out drobbed a plate. When I was picking it up I accidentally cut myself." Ayame looked at him, she was angry. "Don't look at me like that! We didn't turn off the power, we thought you did it. But, I'm still sorry that we messed with you. If we hadn't you probably wouldn't have been so jumpy and you wouldn't have freaked out like that when the power went out."

Ayame sighed, "don't give yourself that much credit. I wasn't that bothered by your guys' pranks. I admit I was irritated. But, I have to admit, at least things are never boring with you two." Kaoru smiled at her. "We have a first aid kit upstairs, follow me." He grabbed her left hand and led her out of the kitchen.

He took her into the bedroom he shared with Hikaru and into the bathroom. He had her sit down on the edge of the bathtub. Kaoru pulled out the first aid kit from the medicine cabinet and right away took out a disinfectant spray. Ayame sat still while he sprayed her cut, but she started to squirm when the cut started to sting from the medicine. "Why didn't you warn me it was going to burn?" Kaoru gently took hold of her hand and bent down to blow on it. "There, does that make it feel better?" He kept his eyes on hers as he gently blew on her cut. Ayame kept her eyes on his as well and thought, "wow he has such pretty eyes. But, then again, all of the Host Club boys have pretty eyes." She closed her eyes and started to drift off into a day dream again. Kaoru stopped blowing on her hand. "What are you thinking of now?" Ayame opened her eyes, "oh, I was just thinking of the color of Tamaki's eyes." Kaoru rolled his eyes. She looked down at her hand, "I was also thinking that I'm amazed that you know how to treat a cut."

Kaoru had to smile, he knew she was teasing. "I'm not a complete idiot you know." He stood and put a bandage over her cut. He sat down on the edge of the tub next to her. "I'm still sorry that we messed with you." Ayame put on her annoyed face, "there's only one way you can make it up to me."

She looked into his eyes, leaned closer to him and smiled in the dim light their flashlights provided, "kiss me, like you did when we fell in the snow." Kaoru was surprised, "what?" She laughed, "I was only kidding! I had to do something to get back at you so you'd stop feeling guilty! Now we're even. But, really, you should have seen your face! You looked so shocked haha." As she laughed he leaned closer to her, gently took hold of her chin so he could turn her to face him. He didn't take his eyes off hers as he leaned in closer, "I'd love to kiss you again." Her eyes went wide, but she didn't have time to react beyond that. Hikaru walked into the bathroom.

Kaoru jerked his hand away and turned to his brother. Ayame looked at Hikaru then Kaoru and then back at Hikaru, she wasn't sure what to think. Hikaru was suspicious but decided not to ask questions. "I finished looking up here and ended up looking downstairs." An awkward silence followed. Kaoru turned to Ayame again, "do you want a ride home? With the power still being out we don't exactly have much else to do." Ayame gave her usual smile, "sure." The trio walked down stairs together before Ayame remembered she needed to grab her bag from the kitchen. The twins waited for her at the door. A car waited for them outside.

Kaoru pulled his cell phone out from his pocket and texted Ayame; "Why did you look so surprised when I was going to kiss you? You did say you wanted me to kiss you! Just Kidding, I had to get back at you, haha." Ayame texted him back while she was still in the kitchen, "I figured you were doing that to tease me!" She walked out of the kitchen and joined them at the front door. "Kaoru, how did you get my cell number anyway?" Kaoru and Hikaru both grinned, "we found it when we looked up your resume on our parents' home computer." Ayame sighed, "great." They walked to the car, a twin on either side of Ayame. "You're being sarcastic, aren't you?" they asked together. Ayame didn't look up, "yep."

Once inside the car Hikaru finally noticed Ayame's bandaged hand. "hey, what happened? Is that why you screamed?" Ayame looked at her hand, "no, not entirely anyhow, I don't like the dark very much, so I got scared. When I got scared I had been washing dishes and I dropped a plate. While I was picking up the pieces I accidentally got cut." She looked at Kaoru, "but he was nice enough to tend to my wound." She lightly pinched his cheek, "isn't he just so sweet?" "Oooww," Kaoru pulled her hand away and Hikaru laughed at the two of them. Rubbing at his cheek Kaoru asked, "so how do you normally get home?" "I take the bus, but I have to admit, I prefer riding in a nice car like this." The twins glanced at one another. "Didn't you used to ride in cars like this all the time when you lived with your family?," asked Hikaru.

Ayame sighed again, "yeah, but it seems like such a lifetime ago. I know technically it was only about a year ago since I left home, but, it feels like forever." The twins were curious, "so you chose to leave your home?" Ayame realized she'd made a mistake and winced at their question. She thought about lying, but she didn't think it would be right. "Well, technically my parents told me to leave. But they only told me to leave because I had left, then I came back, but they wouldn't let me stay." Hikaru and Kaoru waited for more but Ayame kept her mouth closed. She was not about to share anymore about her past. Even though she really hadn't shared much at all.

It wasn't long before they arrived at Ayame's apartment. The driver parked the car in front of the apartment building. Ayame stepped out of the car and smiled, "thanks for the ride you guys. I'll see you at the club tomorrow." She shut the door and the car began to roll away. The twins watched Ayame walk up the steps to her apartment. Once they saw her walk inside Hikaru turned to his brother with a sly smile. "Why was Ayame's face so red when I found you guys in the bathroom?" Kaoru put on a confused look, "her face was red? I didn't notice." Hikaru was not about to just let it go. "Then what was up with those texts? You mentioned a kiss." "Oh, that, I was just teasing her."

Hikaru felt that there was more to it than that, he was about to ask another question when Kaoru's cell phone beeped. He had received a text message. Kaoru flipped open his phone and opened the message. It read, "help." Kaoru ordered the driver to turn the car around. The message had been from Ayame. Inside her apartment Ayame sat on the sofa with her hands tied behind her back and her legs tied at her ankles.

She had managed to pull her cell phone out of her back pocket and pressed the buttons behind her back. She hoped Kaoru got the text. Two strange men were inside her partment. Both were very young, they couldn't have been much older than Ayame. One of them had a knife to Ayame's side. He grabbed her chin and turned her to face him so he could look at her. "You're cuter than he said you'd be."

The other man was in her bedroom, searching for anything valuable. He came out of the bedroom with a dissapointed look. "He said she'd been a rich girl. You'd think she'd have something worth taking. Oh well. Let's take her to the car. He'll be waiting." He grabbed her arm to pull her to her feet, but Ayame spat in his face. "Tell him that's from me!" She jerked her arm away from him, "I don't have anything he'd want!" The one holding the knife to her side grabbed her hair and pulled back before putting the knife against her throat. "He's been watching you, Ayame. It's not you he wants something from. But he does need you." Just then there was a loud bang at the door. Kaoru and Hikaru came running in after kicking in the door. The man with the knife stood, "this makes things easier."

He went to grab Kaoru but he was not fast enough. Kaoru dodged him, punched him. The man tried to swing his knife at Kaoru, but Kaoru easily grabbed his hand and bent his fingers back until he dropped the knife and fell to his knees. Hikaru tackled the other man and punched him out cold. Now that Kaoru had the knife he put it to the mans back, ordering him to sit on the floor so they could tie the two men together with a dog leash they'd found on the coffee table. Hikaru shoved a sock he'd found on the floor into the mouth of the man who'd had the knife to keep him quiet. The other man was still unconscious so they didn't worry about him.

Hikaru pulled out his cell phone to call for the police and went to search the bedroom and bathroom to make sure there was no one else in the apartment. Kaoru used the knife he'd taken to cut through the ropes that had bound Ayame. "Are you okay Ayame? I got your text and we hurried back here." Ayame was shaking slightly. "I'm okay. But I can't figure out why he would have sent them. I don't have anything." At this point Hikaru walked out of the bathroom with Koga. "They had him tied to the sink and he was muzzled." Ayame sank to the floor so she was at eye level with her dog as she stroked him.

Without taking her eyes away from her dog she started to cry. "When I walked in they grabbed me and tied me up. I didn't see him anywhere. I thought maybe they had..." She became very quiet after that, though she made slight wheezing sounds as she cried. The police arrived a moment later. All three stood outside to give their statements and the men were arrested. One officer approached Ayame after helping to put one of them in a car.

Hikaru stood by her side, Kaoru stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. The officer stood in front of her for a moment before asking, "aren't you Ayame Urashima?" Ayame shook a little, "yes, why?" The officer scratched his head, "because, I remember you. I was one of the officers that responded when your parents called claiming they had an intruder in the house. Although, there never was an intruder. I figured they were calling just to scare you off when I saw you leaving the house when we got there. It's a shame what some parents will do to control their kids."

Ayame pressed her back against Kaoru's front a little and nodded her head without saying a word. Kaoru could see she was scared, but why? He squeezed her shoulders, "excuse me officer, but unless she's done anything wrong, is there any reason for this questioning?" Ayame looked up at him and thought, "he has no idea who he's defending." The officer gave them a smile, "I was just making conversation, that's all. You kids have a nice night." He walked away without another word and Ayame breathed a sigh of relief.

Kaoru remembered something and looked down at Ayame, "didn't you say you knew who sent those guys?" Ayame looked up at him again, there was a tinge of fear in her eyes. "I can't tell." As usual, she didn't say anything more after that. When the police left the twins tried to convince her to go home with them. "We have extra bedrooms, and you could bring Koga," said Kaoru. "Just for tonight, so you're not by yourself," added Hikaru. Ayame gave them a smile. "I kind of want to be by myself right now. Just Koga and I. I'll be okay though." She put an arm around each of them. "Thank you."

She let them go with tears in her eyes. Kaoru put a hand on her shoulder and asked, "do you promise you'll call if you need anything?" Ayame gave a smile and a nod. She walked them the short distance to the car waiting for them. They sat in the car and watched her go inside before the car drove away.


	9. Chapter 9

The Host Club was gathered in Music Room 3. They were awaiting the arrival of their guests. Haruhi, who sat on a sofa next to hikaru and Kaoru asked, "where's Ayame? She's usually here by now." Hikaru answered, "we figured she would stay home for today. She was pretty shaken up after what happened yesterday." At this, Kyoya, who sat by Tamaki on a sofa accross from Haruhi and the twins took his attention off of his black book to pay attention to the conversation.

Honey, who sat a few feet away from the others along with Mori at a small round table, spoke up, "what happened yesterday?" Hikaru explained, "she had been attacked by a couple of thugs. But she wasn't injured and we had the men arrested." At last Kaoru said something, though he didn't take his eyes off his lap, "It didn't seem that simple though. She said they were sent by _him_ and that _he_ knows where she lives. I don't know what she meant."

Kyoya looked angry, his bangs covered his eyes, but his voice, which came out almost as a growl, gave away what he was feeling. He aimed his words at the twins, "you two are such idiots." He balled his hands into fists on his lap. "The _he_ that she was talking about had to be her ex-fiancee. He's a violent man, and now he is sending thugs to harm her. She must be terrified and possibly in danger, but you were careless enough to leave her alone!"

Kyoya stood and ran toward the doors. "Where are you going?" Tamaki yelled after him. "I'm going to make sure she's safe." "Wait for me!" Kaoru yelled as he ran after Kyoya. At the site of his twin running off Hikaru rose to run after him. But a forceful voice from Tamaki stopped him. "Hikaru, sit down, those two need to do this on their own."

Hikaru did as he was told. A few moments after the doors had closed Tamaki sighed, "still, it's a shame, one of them is going to have their heart broken." Hikaru looked at him, "what do you mean?" Tamaki looked seriously at him, "well they can't both have her." Everyone (except for Haruhi who was confused) could feel the intensity of both Tamaki's words and their relation to both the speaker and the one spoken to.

Kyoya and Kaoru arrived at Ayame's apartment building within a few minutes. They had taken Kyoya's family's car and driver. Neither had said a word to the other the entire ride. They ran up the steps together. Kyoya leading the way. They were surprised to find the door was unlocked.

Then they were even more surprised to find a man sitting on Ayame's sofa, Koga sat next to him as the man scratched the top of his head. Koga immediately recognized the two boys and ran up to them. After a quick glare from Kyoya the dog opted to jump up on Kaoru instead and licked his face. Kaoru laughed at the feel of the dog's tongue, "down boy! It tickles!" The man on Ayame's sofa stood and assumed a defensive stance. He balled his hands into fists, "who are you two?" Kyoya replied and folded his arms, "we're friends of Ayame's, who are you?"

The stranger called Koga off of Kaoru and back to him with a mere whistle. He figured the boys weren't lying since the dog clearly knew them. He sat back down on the sofa. "My name is Daichi, I'm Ayame's older brother." Kaoru looked at the man and hooked his thumbs in his pockets. Kaoru asked, "I thought she was an only child?"

Ayame came out of her bedroom, having heard the boys from the Host Club arrive. "I am an only child, but Daichi and I call one another brother and sister. He's older than me by a year, so I call him my older brother." Daichi stretched his arms up over his head. "Keh, even if I was younger I'd still call myself your big brother...if it wasn't for me looking out for you like a big bro then you'd be in all kinds of trouble." Ayame went up to Daichi and lightly punched his arm.

"Shut up! I have never gotten into trouble." Daichi rubbed at his arm where Ayame had punched him, despite that it hadn't hurt. "Yeah, cause I keep you out of it." Ayame looked a little annoyed, "no, you're just too busy getting yourself in trouble to notice I don't get into trouble. Now quit telling lies about me so I can go finish packing." Daichi laughed, he liked it when they teased one another like that.

He turned his attention back to Kyoya and Kaoru after Ayame left the room. "Hey, guys, you don't have to stand by the door like that, come in. Ayame's packing so I can take her to stay in a hotel for a while." Kyoya sat down beside Daichi (after the dog was asked to get off) and Kaoru sat on the arm of the chair next to Kyoya. Kyoya swung one leg over the other at the knee. Kaoru eyed Daichi.

He looked like if he stood up he'd be as tall as Mori. He wore faded blue jeans and a red long sleeved shirt. He had pulled the sleeves up to his elbows, exposing a tattoo of a red dragon across his forearm. He had blonde hair pulled back into a small ponytail and light blue eyes. Kaoru thought to himself, "I swear if he'd cut his hair he'd look like an older version of the boss." Kyoya looked Daichi up and down, curious, he asked, "why is it that Ayame has never mentioned you before?" Daichi smiled, "cause she knows I don't like people talking about me."

Kyoya wasn't satisfied with that answer but saw no reason to probe further. "I see...so what is it that you do to earn an income, Daichi?" Once again Daichi smiled politely. "Is this boy trying to figure me out or something? His smile kind of creeps me out," thought Daichi. "I just started working at the hospital. I take the food on the trays to the patients."

Kyoya smiled politely back, "which hospital?" As Daichi and Kyoya talked Kaoru got up and headed toward Ayame's bedroom. Daichi was about to answer Kyoya but instead shouted at Kaoru. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Kaoru was right outside of Ayame's bedroom. He flinched slightly, being surprised by Daichi's voice. He smiled hesitantly, "I'm going to check on Ayame, that's all."

Daichi laughed, "don't be so jumpy kid, I was just messing with you. Go on, see what's taking her so long. I gotta get back to work soon." Kaoru released his breath and entered Ayame's bedroom. Inside the bedroom Ayame was packing the last of her clothes into a black suitcase. Kaoru stood at the foot of the bed, watching her.

He sighed, "hey, so...you're moving? I told you that you should have come to stay with me and Hikaru last night. So, you wouldn't have been alone." Ayame folded a shirt on her bed. Without looking up she said, "it wasn't so bad...now that I'm moving into a hotel you won't have to worry about me." She gave Kaoru a hesitant smile. She turned away from him back to her dresser.

Kaoru grabbed her hand. "Ayame, I can't help but worry about you...Ayame...I...I...lo..." Kyoya suddenly walked into the room, interrupting Kaoru and causing him to jump a little. Kaoru dropped Ayame's hand. Kyoya took Ayame's hand in his and smiled. "I'm pleased to see that you're alright, Ayame. I was worried after the twins told everyone in the club about what had happened yesterday."

Ayame took her hand out of Kyoya's to zip up her bag. "You guys didn't have to come you know. I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me." Kyoya pushed his glasses up and asked, "If you're fine then why are you leaving?" Ayame pulled her suitcase off of the bed before sitting on the bed. "I'm leaving because I don't have much of a choice. I'd rather just stay here, but Daichi is making me leave."

It was Kaoru who now took Ayame's hand in his. "Instead of staying in a hotel, why don't you come stay at my house?" Daichi now walked into the room. "That girl is so stubborn I almost thought I was going to have to drag her out of here. She won't listen that she shouldn't stay here right now." Ayame pushed past the boys and back into her living room. "I am not being stubborn. I just don't see why I have to leave."

Daichi gently grabbed Ayame by the shoulders and turned her to face him. "You know why you have to leave. So quite fighting me." Ayame looked frustrated. "If you want to make sure I'm safe then why can't you just stay here with me?" Daichi looked pained. "It wouldn't work out. Since I just got out of prison I'm trying to save up enough money to get a place of my own. So, I work most of the time. Even if I stayed here you'd be alone most of the time. But...I was thinking...I heard the boy with the orange hair offer for you to stay with him. I think you should take him up on his offer. That way you won't be staying alone...and I'm sure his mansion or whatever you want to call it has security like you're old place did. You'd be safer there than a hotel room."

Kaoru looked on hopefully. Ayame shook her head, "I can't stay there though, I work for his family. I don't even know if his parents would be okay with it." Kaoru spoke up, "I know they'd be fine with it. They really like you. I'm sure they'd want to help you."

Kyoya felt a twinge of jealousy, though he did not show it. Instead he crossed his arms and listened quietly. He knew he could not offer Ayame a place to stay in his home. Ayame looked from Kaoru back to Daichi before biting her lower lip. "But, Daichi, I thought I was going to get to stay in a hotel room right next to yours? So we could be close to one another. I don't want to lose you again."

Ayame looked on the verge of tears so Daichi, keeping his hands on her shoulders, gently turned her and guided her outside where they could talk privately. Once he'd closed the door behind them and they stood on the landing to the stairs he looked her directly in the eyes and gently rubbed the sides of her arms. "Please don't fight me on this, okay? I'm not trying to be mean. But I need to know that you're safe, Ayame. If you stay with that boy then I'll know you're safe. I have to keep you safe, I'm your big brother, remember?"

Ayame nodded her head and sniffled. "I just miss you so much, Daichi." She let a few tears drop from her eyes. Daichi wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her tight. "I know...and I promise you we'll spend time together my next day off," said Daichi. He continued to hold her as he questioned her. "Do they know anything? About that night? I know you said you're parents were going to arrange you to marry the black haired one, right? The other you work for?"

Ayame sniffled again before talking into Daichi's shirt, "yeah. But, no, I haven't told them, or anyone, anything. I thought if I told anyone then I could end up being caught and then I would have broken my promise to you." Daichi laid his chin on the top of her head. "You don't have to worry about that now, Ayame. But don't tell them just yet, okay? I need to straighten something out before you tell them." Ayame pulled away from their hug slightly to look up at him, "what do you need to straighten out?"

Daichi gave her a wide grin, "don't worry about it." She punched his arm for that, "don't get yourself into trouble." Daichi didn't answer, instead, he pulled her close to him again. She didn't like that he didn't answer...what could he be planning? He might call her stubborn but she felt that he was worse. For now though, she didn't fight him. She trusted him. So, she simply hugged him back and held onto him for a moment...she felt scared that if she let go she'd lose him.

Kyoya and Kaoru had ever so slightly pulled back the curtain over the window next to the door to watch the pair standing outside. Kyoya asked out loud, "I wonder if there's more to their relationship than a close friendship." Kaoru didn't want to think of such a possibilty. He did not want to think of Ayame being with anyone but him. He had tried to confess his feelings to her earlier, when they were alone in the bedroom. But, Kyoya had interrupted him. "I don't think so. If there was why would they call one another brother and sister?" Kaoru asked in response.

Kyoya kept his eyes out the window. "Perhaps they haven't realized their feelings for one another yet. Although, I certainly hope they don't," said Kyoya. Kaoru took his eyes off the pair outside and looked at Kyoya, "why not?" Kyoya acted as if he hadn't heard the question and said, "They're coming back in, let's get away from the window or they'll know we were watching." Both boys moved to the sofa and sat next to one another.

Daichi came in ahead of Ayame. He immediately approached Kaoru. Daichi cleared his throat and held out his hand to shake Kaoru's. He spoke clearly and authoratively, "swear to me you'll take good care of her. I'm trusting you with her safety." Daichi's eyes looked as if he wanted to pierce into Kaoru and he clenched his jaw. Kaoru stood and took Daichi's hand without hesitation and shook it. He looked directly back into Daichi's eyes. "I won't let anything happen to her."

Ayame rolled her eyes at the site of the two shaking hands. "Quite being so overly dramatic! I'm not some damsel in distress you know! Geez..." Daichi's eyes and jaw relaxed and he let go of Kaoru's hand to turn and ruffle Ayame's hair. She quickly swatted at his hand. Daichi half laughed. "You're right, you're not some damsel in distress. You're just a little brat who needs looking after." Ayame again swatted at his arm.

Daichi grinned and waved as he said his goodbye. "Well...I gotta get going before I'm late to work. I'll call you later, Ayame. Peace!" After closing the door behind him Ayame turned back to the two boys left in her apartment. "Well now that he's gone...I guess we should get going...I'm already all packed."

The trio headed down to the car, Koga walked along side Ayame. Kyoya was the first to get into the car, afterward Ayame slid in. Followed by Koga who, wanting more room for himself, after Kaoru had gotten in, pushed Ayame closer to Kyoya. Kyoya smiled at Ayame and said, "I certainly hope you're not uncomfortable." She smiled politely back and said, "no, I'm fine."

Kaoru felt a little jealous, could it be that Kyoya liked her too? He decided to interrupt their little moment. "So...Daichi...he just got out of prison?" Ayame turned her attention to Kaoru at the question. "Yeah...but I don't feel comfortable talking about it. Not right now anyhow. I know he'll want me to tell you guys everything at some point. But, for now you just have to trust me that he's a nice guy." Both boys were surprised that she had actually explained something to them. Rather than giving them an incomplete explanation like usual. The car left the curb in front of Ayame's apartment and headed in the direction of the Hitachiin residence. Kaoru and Ayame had to be left off before Kyoya went home, afterall.


	10. Chapter 10

Kaoru stood over Ayame who slept peacefully in the guest bed. Last night had been her first night staying in the Hitachiin residence. Kaoru leaned over her and softly said her name. He was trying to wake her. She started to raise her arms. Kaoru thought she was about to wake up. But, instead, to his surprise Ayame wrapped her arms around his neck.

She pulled Kaoru down so he was bent over her. His face hovering directly over hers. He was both very surprised and a little confused. "Is she even awake?" He asked himself. Her eyes were still closed so he figured she must be still asleep. "Ayame?" Ayame sighed and said, "Kazuki, I loved you." Ayame leaned forward. "Is she going to kiss me?" thought Kaoru. He froze, unsure of what to do, he tried to pull away but Ayame's arms around his neck held him still. Ayame pulled her right hand away from him and slapped him. Ayame awoke at the sound of the slap. She dropped her arm from his neck at the same moment. Kaoru stood up straight and rubbed his cheek.

She got out of bed to see what was wrong with Kaoru. "Kaoru? What happened?" Kaoru smiled, "you slapped me in your sleep." Ayame gave him a guilty look, "I'm so sorry." Ayame gently stroked his cheek where it was slightly red. Kaoru felt his heart beat just a little faster with her touch. "Don't worry about it. Umm I was thinking maybe we could spend some time together today?" Ayame pulled her hand away from his cheek and sat on the bed. She looked up at him, happily, and stroked Koga's head as he laid next to her on the bed.

"You mean you, Hikaru, and me?" Kaoru smiled shyly, "No...I was thinking it would be just the two of us." Ayame looked at him, a little puzzled. She knew the twins were always together. Why would Kaoru want to go out by himself with her? "Kaoru, did you and Hikaru have an argument or something? Is that why you want it to be just the two of us?" Kaoru shook his started to blush a little and he rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. Asking out Ayame was proving a little harder than he had originally thought. "No, he's actually still asleep. I was just thinking that you still owe me that date you had promised when you saw me in the shower." Kaoru's expression changed and he gave her a sly smile. "Unless of course you'd prefer that I tell everyone you were peeping at me in the shower."

Ayame frowned, "well maybe I should just strip off my pajamas (a T-shirt and pajama bottoms) while you're in here so I can tell everyone you peeped at me!" Kaoru didn't move. He smirked. "There's no way you would strip in front of me, you're too innocent." Ayame looked annoyed. "That just shows how little you know about me!" Ayame slowly lifted her shirt until her stomach and lower back were exposed. Kaoru felt frozen. He stood there, unable to move, his eyes wide.

Ayame dropped her shirt and picked up a pillow from the bed and threw it at him so it hit his stomach. "You actually thought I was going to strip in front of you! You're such a perve Kaoru! Now get out of here before I tell everyone how you just stood there and stared at me!" Kaoru left the room, but he did so with a red face. He may not have seen anything other than her stomach, but that was certainly enough for him.

A few minutes later Ayame came downstairs fully dressed in a shirt and jeans. Kaoru immediately noticed that something was off. "Where's Koga? He's usually following you." Ayame looked worried for a moment, "he didn't want to get off the bed. I hope he isn't sick." Kaoru took her chin in his hand and lifted her face so she was looking up at him. "I'm sure he's fine. He is getting kind of old, right? He's probably just tired." Ayame gave Kaoru a smile, "thanks, I needed to hear that. So where are we going?"

They walked side by side out of the house. A car waited for them already in the driveway. "I thought we'd check out this store and then go to breakfast." They slid into the backseat of the car after the driver opened the door and the car pulled away from the house. A short time later they arrived at a manga store. Ayame was excited.

"I've never been to this one before! This is so cool!" Kaoru felt proud of himself, he was sure after today she'd finally think of him as something other than just a friend. Upon walking into the door Ayame's eyes went wide. Not only did the store sell manga, they also sold items of various anime. Ayame was immediately drawn to an Inuyasha wall scroll hanging on the wall behind the counter where the cashiers sat. "Oh wow, Kaoru, I love that Inuyasha wall scroll!" An employee of the store strolled up to Ayame from behind the counter.

He was actually pretty good looking. He had wavy short dark hair, he was tall, with hazel eyes. He gave Ayame a very friendly smile and made eye contact with her right away. Kaoru stood next to her but he didn't address Kaoru in the least. "So, you're into Inuyasha, huh?" Ayame nodded with a large grin on her face. "I love it!" The employee leaned over the counter on his elbows so that his face was closer to Ayame's. "If you'd like I'll sell you that wall scroll for half price. But, you have to give me your phone number first." He smiled wide.

Ayame smiled just as wide, "okay." Kaoru felt his confidence drop. He walked away but acted as if he was simply looking at the items in the glass case that made up part of the counter. He couldn't stand to listen to that guy flirting with Ayame. He had reached the end of the glass case when something caught his eye. He purchased the item from another employee. Ayame had just finished purchasing the wall scroll from the employee who was clearly flirting with her. She jumped a little when she felt the necklace being put on her. She hadn't noticed Kaoru come up from behind. She now looked down to see the Inuyasha necklace he had just purchased for her.

It was a purple heart, with a silver back, and Inuyasha in the middle of it. She instantly loved it. "Ooohhh Kaoru! Thank you!" She turned around on impulse and wrapped her arms around his waist. The employee who had just been flirting with Ayame walked away to the back room of the store, clearly irritated. Ayame pulled away from Kaoru, slightly blushing, she was a little embarrassed she'd just grabbed onto him like that. Kaoru gave her a smile and for some reason her mind immediately remembered him in the shower. She blushed even harder. Kaoru took notice of that but didn't say anything.

"What do you say we go to breakfast now?" Asked Kaoru. Ayame nodded, and smiled. To her surprise Kaoru took hold of her hand and lead her out of the store, holding her hand. Normally she was the one pulling him around by the hand, although she didn't mind him leading her. Back in the car Ayame smiled at Kaoru slyly. "I actually gave that store clerk an old cell phone number. I can't believe he actually sold me the wall scroll for half price just for a phone number." Kaoru was pleased. So she hadn't been interested in him at all. But, he was also curious, "what were you thinking in there, Ayame? That made you blush so much?" She tried to look innocent and said, "nothing..." But her blushing gave her away. Kaoru half laughed, he could easily guess what she had been thinking of. "You're such a perve, Ayame." She was still blushing, but she tried to proclaim her innocence. "I am not! I wasn't thinking of anything dirty!"

Kaoru moved a little closer to her on the seat and grinned. He locked his eyes on hers and said, "I'm just happy you were thinking of me." Ayame didn't know what to say. She thought, "Why do these Host Club boys tease me like this? " That is, until she saw something from the corner of her eye out of the car window behind Kaoru. She jerked her head out of his hand. "We just passed the pet store!" Kaoru looked at her, a little confused, "so?" Ayame looked up at him, she had completely forgotten what he'd just told her and her thoughts of him only a moment ago. "So, I totally forgot I was supposed to pick up some dog food for Koga today. He ran out last night. Can we go back, please?" Kaoru ordered the driver to turn back.

Inside the pet store Ayame grabbed a cart from the front of the store and headed toward the back. They passed rows of pet food, toys, leashes, collars. Ayame turned into the isle that was made up entirely of large fish tanks filled with various fish for sale. She slowed her pace to look at the fish as they passed them. Kaoru walked at the same pace beside her. He was tempted to grab her hand as they walked. He had dared to lead her by the hand earlier, she had let him. But this was different, he wouldn't be leading her. He just wanted to hold her hand as they walked.

He hesitantly reached over to take hold of her hand. She turned abruptly to look at some goldfish in a tank. Kaoru let go of the breath he'd been holding and stuck his hands in his pockets. He stood beside her and watched the different colored fish swimming in the tank. "Kaoru, can I ask you something?" Kaoru took his eyes off the fish to look down at Ayame. "Sure, what is it?" Ayame looked up so that her eyes met his. "Why did you ask me out today?"

Kaoru's face reddened, he rubbed the back of his neck and averted his eyes back to the fish in the tank. He thought, "I wanted to take her out because I can't stop thinking about her." But, all that came out was, "ummm..." Ayame could see his discomfort and so she interrupted him in an attempt to ease that discomfort. "It's okay, Kaoru, I know." Kaoru blinked, he was surprised. "You...know?" Ayame nodded and looked back to the fish.

"Yep, you asked me out because you were jealous that Hikaru's gone out on his first date. But, you hadn't." Kaoru looked defeated. "I was not jealous. How did you know about his date with Haruhi?" Ayame gave him a sideways smile. "You two may live in a very huge and luxorious home, but, the walls are very thin. You two should be careful to make sure no one is listening when you want to have private conversations." Kaoru looked a little annoyed. "You mean you were eavesdropping." Ayame made herself look innocent. "No, if I just so happen to be passing by your room and I hear little tid bits of things, that doesn't make it eavesdropping."

Kaoru smiled at her teasing. "You're a bad girl, Ayame." She half laughed, "Me? Bad? No way, I'm completely innocent. I'm as innocent as you and Hikaru." They smiled at one another for a moment before Kaoru's stomach growled loudly. They laughed together at that. "I guess we should get the dog food and go get some breakfast," said Ayame. She grabbed onto the handle bars of the cart and started to push it down the isle. She smiled when Kaoru put his hands over hers. She could feel his flat stomach pressed close to her back. She wasn't sure what he was up to, but she was having fun spending time with him.

She tilted her head back to look up at him, "what are you doing? Are you trying to feel me up?" Kaoru half laughed, "no, stop thinking so dirty and put your feet up on the bar on the bottom of the cart." Ayame did as she was told and Kaoru put his left foot on the bottom bar as well before pushing with his right. The cart moved forward quickly. Ayame smiled but also gribbed the handle bar even tighter. "Kaoru, if I fall you're in trouble." Kaoru squeezed her hands that were under his. "Don't worry, if you fall I'm right here to catch you."

They reached the back of the store, where the dog food was, much quicker that way. Kaoru helped Ayame to load the large bag of food into the cart and they rode on the cart to the front of the store the same way they'd ridden to the back. Outside the driver was helping Kaoru to load the bag of food into the trunk when Ayame remembered something. "Oh, Kaoru, I forgot to get something. I'll be right back." Ayame went back into the store as the driver shut the trunk to the car. Kaoru leaned against the back door of the car and waited. A few minutes later Ayame came outside with three plastic bags in her hands.

One bag was clear, filled with water, and three small goldfish swam in it. Two were orange, the other was black. "I didn't know you wanted pet fish, Ayame." Ayame smiled at him, "they're not for me. The two little orange ones are for you and Hikaru. The black one is for Kyoya. I have goldfish bowls and supplies in the other bags." Kaoru took the bag with the fish and held them up so he could look at them. "Thanks but, why? Are you sure Kyoya would even want a fish?" Ayame kept on smiling. "Well, it was just kind of a spur of the moment thing. A way of thanking you guys for doing so much for me. As for Kyoya, it will be a surprise, if he doesn't want it then I'll keep it." Kaoru shrugged his shoulders and slid into the car through the door the driver now held open for them.

He continued to watch the little fish swimming as the car drove back to his house. They would not be able to have breakfast out afterall since they had to get the fish home. Ayame scooted close to him on the seat to watch the little fish as well. When her arm brushed against his he looked her. He smiled. "You know, Ayame, while I don't know what that Kazuki guy did to hurt you enough that you would talk about him and slap people in your sleep, I think it was stupid for him to ever have hurt you at all. I...would never do anything to hurt you. Ayame...I...love you" He'd said it. Would she accept him? Ayame looked up at him and smiled softly. "I know you wouldn't hurt me, Kaoru. I love you and Hikaru too. You guys have become like little brothers to me. Sorry for slapping you this morning." Kaoru felt hurt. Had she really just said that? He knew she had...but she hadn't really rejected him. She simply hadn't understood what he'd said, right? She thought he meant a friend or sibling type of love...right? Ayame leaned into him so that her head rested on his shoulder. Kaoru wanted to put his arm around her, but he wasn't sure she'd accept him doing that. So he settled with putting his hand over hers on the seat. He kept it there the rest of the ride home as they watched the fish swimming in the bag. He decided he was not going to give up, not yet.

Back at the house the atmosphere was a little awkward. Ayame had called Kyoya to come over, she'd told him she had a surprise for him. He came, completely not expecting a goldfish to be waiting for him in a bowl. He also had not expected to now be seated at a small dining table across from the twins who sat beside each other. Hikaru was now fully awake and dressed. Though he was a little upset that Kaoru had gone out without him. Ayame was in the kitchen making food, but the boys had no idea what she was making.

Kyoya looked at his fish as it swam around in the bowl and gently tapped the glass. The twins had put their own fish in their bedroom. The room was very quiet. Kyoya chuckled to himself, breaking that silence. Both twins, who held their heads in their hands, looked at him and asked, in unison, "what's funny?" Kyoya focused his glare to Kaoru. "It's easy to see that you like her. However, I find it amusing that you believe you have any chance at all with her. That is why you took her out, isn't it?" Kaoru dropped his hand to the table and sat up straight. "You think you do, Kyoya sempai?" Hikaru also dropped his hand and looked at his twin. Kyoya grinned. "Judging from her expression when she grabbed onto me while we were out on our date, yes, I think I have more than just a chance. Although, that was not our first time spending one on one time together." Kyoya didn't bother explaining any further, he was trying to scare Kaoru into thinking there was no way Ayame would ever like him.

Kaoru smiled. "I don't know about whatever you two might have done together in the past, but I do know that earlier today she wrapped her arms around me. But, come to think of it, that's not the first time she's done that." Kyoya had dropped his grin, though he still kept his cool. Hikaru looked from one to the other as they talked. Kaoru had one last thing to add. "Besides, Kyoya sempai, you and her are just too different. You are, how do you put it? "The product of excellent breeding." While she is a free spirit. Basically she's fun to be around and you're not." Hikaru spoke up, "I have to agree with Kaoru on that."

Kyoya smiled slightly, he kept his stare on Kaoru, "well that may be true in your opinion. Although, you seem to have forgotten that Ayame is also of excellent breeding. You also seem to have forgotten that I am not the one that left her alone after she was attacked. Had I been there I would not have left her alone." Kaoru didn't have a response to that. Hikaru wanted to say something on his brother's behalf, but before he could Ayame came through the swinging kitchen door with a stack of pancakes on a plate. She smiled proudly, but upon seeing the faces of the boys (none looked very happy at the moment) her smile faded. "I was taught how to cook by an American. If you guys don't like pancakes then just don't eat them! I'll have Koga help me to eat them."

Kaoru stood and took the plate from Ayame. "Sorry, we're all just hungry, that's why we don't look very happy." Kaoru put the plate down on the middle of the table and motioned for Ayame to sit. She sat down so that she was in between Kyoya and the twins. Ayame passed the plate to each one of the boys so they could get as many pancakes as they wanted. "You do realize Ayame, if you were to marry back into wealth you'd never have to cook or clean up after anyone again," said Kyoya. Ayame looked at Kyoya.

"I would never do that, I enjoy my life as what you call a commoner." Kaoru began cutting into the pancakes on his plate. "Never? What if a man with wealth confessed he had feelings for you?" Asked Kaoru. Ayame chewed a bite of pancake before answering. "Well only if I fell in love would I marry back into wealth. But, it takes more than a confession of love to win me over. Plus, I doubt that would happen, rich boys are just too spoiled and immature for my taste." The twins looked at her irritated and said in unison, "hey! That's not true! We're not spoiled and immature!" Ayame looked at them and gave them a strained smile. "How are you two not spoiled and immature? Who played pranks on me the other night?" Kyoya smiled to himself before taking a bite of pancake and thinking, "She didn't think of me as spoiled or immature before. I highly doubt her opinion of me has changed."

The twins looked annoyed and were about to say something but Kyoya stole Ayame's attention before they could say a word. Kyoya gave Ayame a smile and said, "my compliments, Ayame, on your cooking skills. The man you choose to marry, whether he be a commoner or otherwise, will be very fortunate to have you." Ayame smiled, "thank you, Kyoya. Although, I don't think pancakes are that hard to do. I could teach you to make them sometime, if you'd like." Kyoya glanced at Kaoru, who still looked annoyed, before saying, "I would like that." Kaoru looked from Kyoya's smiling face to Ayame who smiled back at him. Kaoru worried, "Could she actually like him?"


	11. Chapter 11

Mori stepped quietly with bare feet through the nearly empty dojo. He wore gray sweat pants and a gray T-shirt. He came to a stop near the end of the hall and slid open a door. Ayame stood inside the room. It was nearly empty except for a wooden bench, a full length mirror against one wall, and Ayame's backpack. She stood in front of the mirror in blue sweat pants and a T-shirt. She was pulling her hair back into a pony-tail. "Are you ready?" asked Mori as he stood in the doorway watching her. He examined her slender yet slightly curvy frame. Kaoru and Kyoya had asked him and Mitskuni to teach Ayame self defense. They had agreed, she was a friend of theirs too, afterall.

Ayame looked away from the mirror at Mori before dropping her hands from her hair and responding, "yeah, I'm ready." She smiled at Mori as she crossed the room toward the doorway where he stood. She didn't mind learning self defense. She actually thought it might be fun. Mori lead the way toward the back of the dojo, outside to a very wide patio and several landscaped acres of land. Outside, Ayame looked around before asking, "where's Honey sempai?" Mori bend over, stretching, and said, "he's taking a nap." Ayame followed Mori's movements to stretch her own muscles.

Ayame smiled, stretching her right arm across her chest, "so, Mori-sempai, what butt-kicking move are you going to teach me first?" Mori smiled at her before slipping on some tennis shoes, "first, we're running." Ayame pouted, "but I hate running!" Mori didn't wait to hear her pouting, he sprinted off the patio and said, "come on." Ayame hurriedly ran after him, she had her tennis shoes on from the start. She caught up to him, he was going slow for her. "I thought I was going to learn self defense, not how to run away!" Ayame continued to complain.

Mori smiled down at her, "part of being able to defend yourself is being in good shape." Ayame looked up at him, a little annoyed, "are you trying to say something Mori-sempai? What's wrong with my shape?" Mori looked straight ahead, "nothing, you look good." He sped up and went on a little ahead of her. Ayame pushed herself to keep up. "Mori-sempai! Are you hitting on me?" Mori looked down at her, "no." Ayame kept quiet for a short time after that...the only sound from her was her huffing as she jogged beside Mori. He jogged calmly and quietly, being used to it he was not tiring as fast as she. "He really doesn't talk very much at all. Although, I can barely catch my breath right now...I'm not sure I could talk if I tried," thought Ayame.

Since she couldn't talk, she watched him. He jogged along smoothly. He made jogging seem effortless. He just kept on swinging one leg in front of the other and swinging the other back. She figured he could keep going on like that for a long time. Certainly much longer than she could. At the moment she was beginning to feel like her lungs were on fire. They had been jogging for at least thirty minutes already...although to her it felt even longer. She huffed, "how much longer are we going to do this?" Mori looked down at her, "are you tired already?"

"Am I really that badly out of shape? He's barely out of breath," thought Ayame. She stopped completely, bent over and huffed and wheezed, "okay! That's it, I'm done! Carry me back 'cause I'm not moving from here." She sat down on the grass on the side of the dirt path they had been jogging along. She shut her eyes for a second as she tried to catch her breath. When she opened them she was surprised to see Mori squated down in front of her with his back to her. "Get on," was all he said. She was confused, "what are you doing?" He stayed squated, "you said to carry you, so get on." Ayame smiled, in an attempt not to laugh, "I was only kidding Mori-sempai." He didn't move. Instead, he said, "you're wheezing, so I'll carry you back."

Ayame sighed, was he really willing to carry her? It seemed a little strange. She hopped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. He put his forearms under her knees, one on each side of him. When he stood up she held a little tighter, he was so tall that she was scared of falling. "Ayame," said Mori. She looked down at the ground and asked, "yes?" Mori shifted her on his back, "you're holding too tight...you're choking me." Ayame blushed, "I'm sorry!" She moved her hands to his shoulders and held on.

He walked slowly back to the dojo. He was silent, as was his usual self. Ayame was able to catch her breath after a short time. Though she didn't say so because although she would never admit to it, she was enjoying being carried by Mori. "I wonder if this is how Kagome feels when Inuyasha carries her?" thought Ayame. She let her mind wander with that thought. "It would probably be more exciting for Kagome though...since Inuyasha runs...and she's in love with him. Ooohh to have the man you love carry you...to feel his strong arms holding you..." Ayame sighed without meaning to. Mori again shifted her weight on his back before asking, "is something wrong?"

Ayame brought her attention back to Mori. "Oh, no, it's nothing...I was just thinking girly romantic thoughts. I've been doing that a lot lately...a side effect of being a guest in the Host Club I suppose." Mori nodded. Ayame went back into her thoughts for a minute before sighing again. Mori asked her, "more girly thoughts?" Ayame half laughed, "no...well...sort of...I was just thinking of...someone." Mori caught that last piece, even though she had said it very quietly. She had said she was thinking of someone. Though he didn't comment on it. Ayame took her hands off of his shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck again. "I know you must be wondering who it is I'm thinking of, but I can't tell you," said Ayame. Mori stayed quiet.

She bit her lower lip and said, "what I can tell you is that I think it's more than just a simple crush. I hope that makes sense. What I mean is...I've never felt this way about anyone." Mori nodded. Ayame pressed her face into his shoulder and muttered, "I know I should tell him, but I just can't." She brought her head up and said, "I'm scared he doesn't feel the same way. Also...right now isn't a good time for me to be falling in love in the first place. Not with my bastard of an ex-fiance after me. I can't let anyone get anymore involved than they already have. That's why I'm supposed to be learning self defense, right? So I can defend myself, not depend on anyone else." Mori nodded, she was only supposed to be learning self defense just in case anything happened and no one else was around, but he wasn't going to disagree with her. She smiled and said, "you know, you're really easy to talk to Mori-sempai."

They had arrived back at the wide patio at the back of the dojo. Honey had woken up from his nap and now sat on the floor eating a white cake with strawberry filling. To her surprise Kaoru, Hikaru, and Kyoya were also there. Although the twins stood near the door, while Kyoya stood near the edge of the patio, near Honey. Mori set Ayame down on the patio. She smiled happily, "what are you guys doing here?" she was addressing the twins and Kyoya. Kyoya spoke before either of the twins had a chance to, he took Ayame's hand in hers, being the closest to her, and smiled. "I came, Ayame, to invite you out to lunch." Ayame smiled up at him, "that's nice of you Kyoya, all of us should go out together! It will be fun. We can call Tamaki and Haruhi to join us."

That wasn't what Kyoya had hoped for, but he kept his smile despite his annoyance. "I'm going to go get changed," said Ayame. Once she had gone inside Kyoya made himself busy on his cell phone, calling Tamaki and then Haruhi to notify them of their lunch plan. At the same time Hikaru turned to Kaoru and said, "why don't you do anything when Kyoya flirts with her like that?" Kyoya was far enough away from them that he was out of earshot. Kaoru looked a mixture between frustrated and hurt. "What am I supposed to do?" Hikaru was frustrated with his brother's answer, "well interrupt them, say something, anything so she's paying attention to you and not him." Hikaru looked at his brother, "you still haven't told me why you kept it from me that you like her."

Hikaru looked at his brother, who's hair was now a dark ash gray. "Because you still haven't won over Haruhi. I didn't want you worrying over my love life when you're having problems with your own." Kaoru looked a bit annoyed at that, though he didn't get to respond, Ayame came back outside, excited to spend time with everyone. Honey noticed the way Mori was watching Ayame and asked him, "Takashi, I know Kyo-chan and Kao-chan like Aya-chan, but are you starting to like her too?" Mori shook his head and quietly said, "no, she told me she is already in love with someone." Honey's eyes went wide, "really? Who?" Mori kept his eyes on Ayame as she talked about nothing in particular with the twins and Kyoya. "She didn't tell me," said Mori. He watched as across the patio Ayame grabbed Kaoru by the hand before pulling him along and calling to the other three boys to follow. She smiled and said, "come on Mori-sempai, Honey-sempai, and Kyoya!"


	12. Chapter 12

Ayame woke up in a good mood that morning. She had been staying at the Hitachiin residence for two weeks now. She was starting to enjoy herself. Living with two lively young men meant there was rarely a boring moment. Plus, ever since the night of the blackout neither twin played pranks on her anymore. She liked that. She was smiling and contentedly mixing ingredients to make muffins in the kitchen.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Kaoru walked into the kitchen still wearing pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. "Oh, Kaoru, good morning, I thought you guys would still be sleeping. It's Saturday." Kaoru yawned, "Well I just came down to get a drink of water, but if you want I could help." "Are you sure you don't want to go back to sleep?" Kaoru smiled wide, "nah, it's okay, just tell me what you want me to do." Ayame thought for a moment, "Do you think you could grease the muffin pans for me?."

"Okay," said Kaoru. Ayame handed him two muffin pans and a can of spray on butter. "Careful not to get any on the floor, I'll preheat the oven while you do that." She turned around and walked to the oven. Kaoru started spraying the pans, however, having never done it before, he held the pan up and sprayed wildly. A lot of it ended up on the floor, the countertop, and even on his clothes. "Ayame, is this enough?" He held up the pan, now covered in a thick coating of spray on butter. Ayame laughed, "that's more than enough." Ayame moved to the countertop where the muffin mix sat in a bowl, and started to mix it. Kaoru took a step closer to her when he slipped on the butter he'd sprayed on the floor. The muffin pan he'd been holding flew into the air, he fell flat on his face, and the muffin pan came down on his head, hard. "Oh! Kaoru! Are you alright?"

Ayame knelt down to see if he was even still conscious. "Oooowwww." Was his only response. "Ice! We need ice! Or else you'll get a bump on your head!" Ayame hurriedly went to the fridge, making sure she stepped carefully so she didn't slip as well. Helping Kaoru into a chair she gently placed an ice pack filled with a blue frozen gel inside on his head.

"That's cold!" Kaoru shouted and pulled away. Ayame tried not to laugh at Kaoru's childish response to the ice pack. "I know it's cold, but if you don't put it on you're going to get a bump." Despite being in pain (he wasn't seriously injured, just sore) Kaoru was actually kind of enjoying what was happening. Ayame had one hand on his shoulder, the other was holding the ice pack on his head. Because Ayame was shorter than him he had to bend down slightly so she could reach the top of his head. This meant he was face to face with her chest, which, he didn't mind in the least.

"Did you hear what I said, Kaoru?" In fact, he hadn't been paying attention to what she was saying at all, he was only focused on what was in front of him. Snapping to attention, Kaoru sat up straight. Laughing, she asked, "where did you go right now? I asked you if you still wanted to help me finish making the muffins?" Kaoru blushed, "oh, sorry.I guess I hit my head harder than we , I still want to help." Ayame cleaned up the floor and sprayed the butter on the second pan, although she did it over the sink so any excess would land in the sink.

They spooned the batter into the pans together. "Hey, this stuff smells good, can I eat some?" "What?No, it has raw egg in it. You already hurt yourself, Kaoru! Don't get food poisoning too!" "Hey, it's okay if I get sick, because then you can take care of me again." Kaoru laughed. Ayame had to laugh as well, "if you get sick on purpose I'm not taking care of you!I'm not you're personal nurse! Although, that gives me an idea."

Kaoru raised an eybrow at her, "what are you thinking?" "Maybe if I fed some of this stuff to Tamaki he'd get sick and then I could volunteer to take care of him. I'd be his personal nurse in a heart beat." Before she could drift off into her day dream Kaoru burst out laughed with him, she knew her day dreams could be kind of weird. It took them a while to stop laughing, and to recover from the pains in their sides from laughing so hard.

"Okay, Kaoru, I'm going to go start cleaning up, do you think you can handle putting these in the oven?" Smiling, Kaoru nodded. "Here, the oven's already hot from preheating, so you'll have to use these pot holders or else you'll burn yourself." Ayame handed two pot holders to Kaoru. He carried the raw muffins in their pans to the oven, opened it and put the muffins in. He laid the pot holders on the very edge of the stove so that they were hanging half way off of the edge of the stove and turned around when Ayame called to him from the sink, where she stood washing the dishes they'd used to make the muffin batter.

"Kaoru, be careful using the oven, without meaning to you could burn the house down! Actually, with your cooking experience I wouldn't be surprised if you were to tell me you've done that before." Ayame was having fun teasing Kaoru. "Haha, very funny." Kaoru shut the oven door while still facing Ayame. Kaoru started to walk out of the kitchen, "hey, where do you think you're going? Come here and help me with these dishes, Kaoru!" Kaoru gave Ayame a sly smile. He'd never washed dishes before, but he didn't mind doing it as long as it meant he got to spend more alone time with Ayame.

As they waited for the muffins to bake they played video games in the guest bedroom Ayame slept in. A while later Ayame went back downstairs to check on the muffins. She let Koga outside the main doors on her way to the kitchen. He was acting strange so, she figured he needed to go out. Hikaru nearly walked past the room where Kaoru sat on the bed, waiting for Ayame. He turned and stood in the doorway when he noticed his twin sitting on the guest bed.

"What are you doing in here?" Kaoru didn't take his eyes off of the T.V. screen and the game he played. "I am waiting for Ayame, we were playing together. But, she had to go check on the muffins we made this morning." Hikaru folded his arms and leaned against the door frame. "Since when do you bake?" Kaoru gave Hikaru a smile, "since she asked me to help her." They both turned toward the window when they heard a dog barking.

They looked outside to see Koga barking up at them, he seemed agitated. Hikaru sniffed the air, "do you smell smoke?" He barely finished his question when the smoke alarm went off. "Ayame!," shouted Kaoru as he raced out of the bedroom with Hikaru right behind him. They found Ayame kneeling on the floor right outside the kitchen doors. She was coughing and gasping for air. Her eyes teared up from being irritated from the smoke in the kitchen. Both boys knelt in front of her.

Kaoru looked at her, she was unable to catch her breath. "Ayame, where's your inhaler?" Kaoru knew she carried an asthma inhaler and figured she needed it now. Ayame looked at him and managed to gasp out, "my bag....kitchen." Even though Ayame had been staying with them she kept her messenger bag in the kitchen out of habit. Right now smoke seeped under the kitchen door. Kaoru looked to Hikaru, "take her outside so she can get some clean air, I'll be out there in a sec." He pushed through the kitchen door. Hikaru wanted to go after him, what had he just walked into?

But he also knew he had to get Ayame outside. He helped her to her feet and they made their way outside through the main doors, where Koga waited for them. Kaoru could barely see in the kitchen. The moment he breathed in the smoke his lungs burned and his eyes began to tear up.

He was surprised when he passed by the stove, it was engulfed by flames. He was careful not to get anywhere near it. He found Ayame's bag hanging in the supply closet and headed back outside. He ran outside and saw Ayame and Hikaru sitting on the front porch on a wrought iron bench. The moment Hikaru saw his twin he jumped to his feet, "Kaoru, are you okay?" But, Kaoru wasn't concerned with himself at the moment. Despite the fact that he too was now coughing from inhaling the smoke.

He could see that Ayame's breathing hadn't gotten any better. He ignored Hikaru's inquiry and dumped out the contents of Ayame's bag to find the inhaler. He picked it up off the floor, carried it to her and, sitting next to her, put it up to her mouth and pressed down on the pump. Ayame laid her hand over his and looked directly into his eyes as he administered the medicine for her. She thought to herself, "Kaoru looks so scared." She nodded her head for Kaoru to push down on the pump a second time. No sooner had he taken the inhaler out of her mouth when the paramedics arrived.

A male paramedic quickly placed oxygen masks over both Kaoru and Ayame. The three of them, Hikaru, Kaoru, and Ayame sat together outside as the fire men went inside. Ayame spoke through her mask, "I tried to put out the fire before I ran out of the kitchen. But, I couldn't take the smoke. I had to run out." Kaoru hadn't taken his eyes off of her, "why didn't you call for help when you saw that there was a fire?" Ayame coughed, "I tried to, but I coudln't even get in enough air to yell." Kaoru put an arm around Ayame's shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

"I should have gone downstairs with you." Ayame pushed herself slightly away from Kaoru so she could look up at him. "There's no way you could have known this would have happened." She coughed again. Hikaru watched the two of them. He suddenly felt very distant from his twin.

Hikaru wasn't sure if Ayame felt the same way, but it was clear that Kaoru was falling for her. Several fire men emerged from the house just as the twins' parents arrived. "Uh, oh," the three of them said at the same time. The twins' mom went up to them immediately, she had a panicked look on her face. "Kaoru, are you alright?" She was talking about the oxygen mask he breathed from.

"I'm fine mom, Ayame's the one you should be concerned for." Ayame stood up and removed the oxygen mask. She bowed at the waist to the twins' parents, "I'm sorry. This whole mess was my fault. I would understand it if you feel the need to terminate my employment." Kaoru immediately jumped to Ayame's side and dropped his oxygen mask, "no, it's not her fault! We don't even know what caused the fire." At that the twins' father stepped forward, "Hikaru, Kaoru, I think you two need to come inside with us."

The twins followed their parents inside and Ayame sat back down and stroked Koga's ears as he sat in front of her. She wanted to cry but she knew getting emotional would only cause her to have another asthma attack. Kaoru came back outside about 20 minutes later. He looked tired. He sat down beside Ayame. "Turns out the fire was caused by the pot holders being put in the oven. Obviously when I put the muffins in they fell from where I put them."

He turned his face to Ayame, "you're not going to be fired. Although, I am in huge trouble." He looked straight into her eyes, "I'm just happy that you don't have to go anywhere." Ayame could see that he felt guilty over what had happened. Though, she did not blame him in the least. "Kaoru, I think I should tell you I caused a fire the first time I tried to cook. Before I lived with Michelle I had never cooked before. So, one of my first times cooking I actually put a towl down on top of the stove while it was still on. At the time, Michelle was furious, but it's kind of funny to think about it now."

Kaoru was curious. "Did anything get burned? Besides the towel, I mean." Ayame smiled, he didn't look like he felt guilty anymore. "No, the towel burst into flames but Michelle put it out quickly enough that nothing else caught on fire. But, she never left me alone in the kitchen again." She half laughed, remembering. Kaoru smiled. He reached for her hand and gave her back her inhaler, "keep this in your pocket from now on. Just in case." Ayame gave him a smile and a nod before she grabbed his hand and stood up. She pulled him to his feet and led him into the house, Koga following behind them.

"I think we both need to shower, we reek of smoke." Kaoru smiled mischieviously, "when you say we, does that mean together? Afterall, you have seen me in the shower once already." Ayame froze at the top of the stairs, she blushed as the memory of Kaoru in the shower came to her. She tried to keep her voice steady, "no, of course I didn't mean together!" She thought of something to get her mind off of Kaoru in the shower.

"I would, however, love to shower with Tamaki." She turned around and smiled at Kaoru. He didn't look as pleased, "ick, I wouldn't want to even imagine him in the shower. You're a perve for thinking of him that way." He grinned as he teased her. Ayame pretended to be offended.

"I am not the one who's a perve! You're the one that wanted to shower with me!" They walked down the hallway together, Hikaru grinning and Ayame smiling. Hikaru had cracked their bedroom door open very slightly and was watching them. They stopped in front of the first bedroom, the guest bedroom where Ayame slept.

Ayame cupped her hands together in front of her, "thank you, Kaoru, for going back in there to get my inhaler. I really do need to stop depending on you to help me all the time." Kaoru put his hands on his hips and smiled down at her, "nah, I don't mind coming to rescue you when you need me to." Ayame looked up at him and smiled. "Thank you, Kaoru, for being such a good friend." That was all she said before she walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind herself and Koga.

After hearing that Hikaru closed their bedroom door and sat on the bed to wait for Kaoru. He was certain what Ayame had just said had to have hurt. Kaoru came into the bedroom, he looked upset and tired. Hikaru wanted to help, to say something, but what could he say? "Kaoru, are you okay?" Kaoru looked to Hikaru and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The only thing that was on fire was the inside of the stove. I was careful not to get near it so I didn't get hurt." "Kaoru, that's not what I meant. I heard what Ayame said to you in the hall. I know you really like her." Kaoru gave him a weak smile. "I knew what you meant, but I don't want to think about what she said. I am hoping I can somehow get her to think of me as more than a friend." Kaoru turned away from Hikaru and went into the bathroom to shower.


	13. Chapter 13

Ayame sat outside the bedroom on the small balcony. The cool night air along with both the view of the city and so many stars was relaxing to her. She knew Kaoru would be coming soon to check on her. He had been coming in to check on her every night around this time since she'd come to stay in the Hitachiin residence. She had been living there for about almost three weeks already. Sure enough, a few moments later she heard a knock at the door. Kaoru walked into the bedroom to see the TV on the wall was on, the bedside lamp was on, and the covers on the queen sized bed had been pulled back. But he did not see Ayame in the room. His heart nearly dropped, but then he saw the large rottweiler come through the doors leading to the balcony to greet him.

He knew the dog rarely left her side, which meant she was on the balcony. Karou walked through the doors, "I thought maybe you'd be asleep by now. What are you still doing up?" Ayame sighed, "I just couldn't sleep, I'm not tired. I didn't have to work today so I wasn't tired to go to sleep early." Kaoru asked, "Do you want some company?" "Sure, that would be nice," Ayame said as she put down her legs from the wicker bench so that Kaoru could sit next to her. "What are you reading?" Ayame looked at the book in her hands, "oh, it's an Inuyasha manga, I should have told you that the story continues in the manga." "Let me see, what part are you on?" Kaoru said as he got closer to Ayame so that he could look at the book she was holding.

"We're so close our shoulders are touching," Kaoru thought as his heart beat just a little faster. "I just read the part where Kikyo dies." "She dies?" Kaoru looked surprised. "So I guess that forces him to choose Kagome, doesn't it?" Ayame sniffed..."yeah I guess it does, but I like to think he would have picked her anyways." Kaoru looked at Ayame, "are you crying? It's sad but it isn't that sad." Ayame looked at him, "yes it is! I mean I know she wasn't the nicest character, or one of my favorites, but still it's sad." Kaoru chuckled. "What's so funny? Don't laugh at me while I'm crying." Kaoru tried to stifle his laugh with his hand, "I'm sorry, but I can't help it, it's only a story, you shouldn't get so worked up."

"You're right, it is just a story." Ayame sniffed again, but then she felt a gentle hand under her chin. Kaoru gently moved her face so that she was looking at him. He wiped away her tears with his fingers, and then held her face in his hands. There was a part of him that ached to hold her. Ayame thought to herself, "What is he thinking? He looks like he's very deep in thought, is something bothering him? Maybe I should say something." Ayame thought of the perfect thing, in her opinion, to distract Kaoru of whatever it was that was on his mind. "Would anything in the story of Inuyasha upset you? I mean, if something happened the way you didn't expect it to? Or something you just didn't want to happen?"

Kaoru let his hands fall from her face and thought for a moment. "I would hate it if Kagome ever chose anyone over Inuyasha." She laughed, "that would never happen." He looked at her smiling face, he wanted to always see her this way. "I hope you never choose him, Ayame." Ayame was confused, "what are you talking about?" Kaoru hadn't realized he'd said that out loud. "Ugh...I said, I hope you never choose him, Kagome." "Kaoru, you can be so weird." "Hey, you're the one who drifts into day dreams over Tamaki sempai." "Oohh but he is just so dream worthy. I could just close my eyes and drift off to sleep thinking about him." Kaoru rolled his eyes. She yawned, "I feel so sleepy all of a sudden."

At the sound of her yawn Koga jumped up onto the bench next to her, pushing her closer to Kaoru to make room for the big dog. They laughed before Ayame tilted her head back, smiling, and shut her eyes. Then, suddenly she felt herself being lifted up. She opened her eyes to see that Kaoru was now carrying her in his arms. "Kaoru, what are you doing?" "You said you feel sleepy, so I'm going to tuck you into bed." She smiled and laid her head against his chest. "This feels so nice," she thought. Kaoru laid her down on the bed and covered her. Koga jumped up on the bed soon afterward and nestled himself next to her. Kaoru sat at the foot of the bed and watched her drift into sleep.

Kaoru turned off the bedside lamp, but left the TV on, he knew she didn't like to sleep in the dark. Before he left the room, he leaned down over her, she was definetely asleep. He traced her cheek with the tips of his fingers, brushing away some strands of hair. He whispered, "I really hope you never choose him." Ayame shifted in her sleep, Kaoru stood up straight, scared she would wake up and question what he was doing. She didn't wake up though, instead she wrapped her arms around Koga, and said "Yes, Tamaki, I would love some commoner's ramen."

Kaoru tried hard not to laugh. He again leaned down over her, and very gently, so not to wake her, kissed her cheek. He walked out of the room feeling as though he were floating. Once out of the room, however, he shut the door and began laughing hysterically. "Oh geez! She really does dream about that idiot! "I would love some commoner's ramen." I have to go tell Hikaru she talked in her sleep." Kaoru walked to the bedroom he shared with his brother feeling elated.


	14. Chapter 14

Ayame hummed to herself as she walked through the halls of Ouran Academy. As she hummed she thought, "I kind of wish Mother and Father had allowed me to attend an academy. Of course, that means I'd still be in school, but, as long as that school was Ouran I'd be happy." Ayame had reached the doors of Music Room 3. As she pushed open one of the doors she though, "yep, I'd love to have gone to school here, because I have friends here." Ayame smiled upon seeing the boys, and Haruhi, who were dressed as if in ancient Egypt. Tamaki, of course, was dressed as a pharoah.

She was the first guest there, so, instead of the usual greeting Tamaki approached her and said, "good afternoon, Ayame, will you be my Egyptian princess for today? Umph!" The twins had pushed Tamaki off to the side. Ayame looked a little surprised at that. "Don't listen to Tono, I'm sure he'll use that line on all the girls today," said Kaoru. "I will not!" shouted Tamaki, although the twins ignored him. "Come with us, we'll show you a good time." "Ayame," Kyoya stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders as he leaned in close. She blushed in response to him being so close and shirtless. "It would be my pleasure to be your host for today's club activities," said the shirtless Kyoya as he gave her a smile.

Ayame sniffed and said, "do you guys smell chocolate?" The twins tilted their heads to the side, "what?" Honey giggled from across the room at a table with chocolate cake in front of him. "Do you want some chocolate cake, Aya-chan?" Ayame looked up at Kyoya, then at the twins and last at Tamaki who stood off to the side. "Sorry guys, but I'm going with Honey-sempai, nothing beats chocolate. Not even shirtless boys." She joined Honey and Mori at the table, sitting between them. Ayame watched with wide eyes as Honey cut her a piece of cake and asked, "How are you today, Mori-sempai?" Mori smiled, "good." Honey took a bite of his slice of cake, "how are you doing in your self defense training, Aya-chan?"

Ayame smiled, "It's been fun. I hope you can join us sometime. Mori-sempai has told me that you're taking a nap by the time I get to the dojo." Ayame took a bite of cake. "Mori sempai also says I'm learning fast, right Mori-sempai?" Mori patted the top of her head, "yeah, she's doing good." The other hosts had moved to the sofas. Without her knowing it Kyoya and Kaoru were watching her. Kaoru thought, "she's so cute, I wish she would see me as more than just a friend." As the guests started to arrive Kyoya thought, "she's quite unlike any other girl I've met. If only she had accepted the arranged marriage. She would be mine right now."

Ayame thought, "this cake is so yummy! I love chocolate!" After club activities were over and all the guests had left, all of the Host Club members (and Ayame) walked outside of the school together. They were all surprised at what they saw, but, Ayame was the first to vocalize it. "It's raining. But, it was so bright and sunny earlier," said Ayame. "Oh well," said the twins. They looked at Ayame and grinned, "we had fun together the last time it rained, right?" Ayame looked annoyed, "no!"

Kyoya watched the meaningless conversation between Ayame and the twins. He still felt a bit annoyed that Ayame had not chosen to sit with him in the club today. As each of them stood and waited for their cars to pull up Kyoya approached Ayame. He reapeated his stance from earlier, putting his hands on Ayame's shoulders. "I must admit I'm a little dissapointed we didn't get to spend time together in the club. I was thinking perhaps I could take you up on your offer to teach me to make pancakes?"

Ayame looked up at him and smiled, "sure." At the mention of something sweet Honey chimed in excitedly from on top of Mori's shoulders, "you guys are going to make pancakes? I love pancakes! Can Takashi and I come to learn how to make them too? We can make some with chocolate chips!" Now Ayame was excited, "great idea!" The twins said in unison, "we want to make some too!" Ayame nodded, "okay! Tamaki and Haruhi, do you want to come?" Tamaki's car had already arrived, "sorry Ayame, but I have to attend a meeting with my father. See you guys later!"

The car pulled away with Tamaki inside. "Alright then, what about you, Haruhi?" Haruhi shook her head, "I have a ton of laundry to do." Hikaru stepped up to Haruhi, "why don't you let me take you home? You can ride with Kaoru, Ayame, and me." Haruhi accepted Hikaru's offer. A moment later three cars pulled in front of the patio they stood under. One was for Kyoya, one for Mori and Honey, and the third was for the twins, Ayame, and Haruhi. While the others pulled out umbrellas Ayame immediately stepped out from under the protection of the patio, into the rain and headed toward the car.

"Ayame! You're going to get sick if you let yourself get wet like that! It's pouring!" Kaoru tried to scold her. Ayame scoffed, "it's just a little water. But, it's okay if you're scared, Kaoru, I understand." Kaoru grinned at her teasing, "this is why I love her," he thought. "I'm not scared! Watch!" Kaoru walked toward her without his umbrella. Ayame wasn't sure if it was the cold water giving her chills or seeing Kaoru walking toward her. She blamed such thoughts on being around the Host Club too much. "I'm turning into a pervert," she thought. "I can do better than that," said Ayame. She walked behind the car and jumped into a large puddle.

"That's not impressive," said Kaoru as he did the same, making sure his splash wet Ayame. She shouted, "hey! That's cold!" Kaoru laughed. "When you two decide to stop soaking one another call me and I'll come back for you two," said Hikaru as he slid into the back of his family's car with Haruhi. Ayame laughed, "let's go Kaoru, we're both already soaked." Kaoru smiled, "you started it." Ayame half laughed, "I may have started it but you didn't have to go along with it!" They joined Hikaru and Haruhi in the back of the Hitachiin family's car.

At the Hitachiin mansion everyone, except for Kaoru, who went upstairs to change his wet clothes, and Hikaru who was taking Haruhi home, had gathered in the kitchen. Kaoru walked through the hallway upstairs toward his room. He came to the room Ayame was staying in and noticed that Koga was laying down on the floor, asleep. "Hey Koga, why don't you wake up and come downstairs?" Kaoru walked into the room and bent down to pet the large dog. Downstairs Ayame had gathered all of the ingredients on the counter to begin making pancakes. Mori and Kyoya sat on chairs, observing, while Honey and Ayame had gathered everything they needed. "Now what, Aya-chan?" asked Honey excitedly. Ayame thought for a moment, she felt her sneakers squishing from being soaked, "hmmm. Actually, I think I should also go and change my clothes. I'm getting cold."

Ayame looked down at her soaked shoes, jeans, and shirt. "I'll be right back," said Ayame as she headed out of the kitchen. As she came to her room she saw Kaoru walk out of the rom and close the door behind himself. He held a pair of her jeans and one of her shirts in his right hand. "Kaoru!" Kaoru jumped at seeing Ayame. He smiled at her. "What were you doing in my room Kaoru? Why are you holding my clothes? I realize it's your house, but, I still have a right to privacy," Ayame scolded him. "This is going to be hard," thought Kaoru. He cleared his throat, "Ayame...I have to tell you something."

Ayame reached for the door handle, "okay, but I need to get changed first, so give me my clothes and let me into the room." Kaoru didn't move from here he stood blocking the door. "Ayame, I think you should change in my room. Because I don't think you should see Koga in there. I thought he was asleep at first but...he passed away." Ayame slapped him. She hit him harder than the last time. He looked down her, she looked sad and lost. Her eyes welled with tears, "that's not funny Kaoru! Stop teasing me!" Kaoru put his arms around her, "I'm sorry, Ayame."

She tried to pull away at first. She didn't want to believe it. She refused believe it. She sobbed, ". He can't be gone." Kaoru held onto her, despite her struggling. "It's okay, Ayame, I'm here for you." She stopped struggling and held onto him. She became quiet for a moment, the only sound she made was a wheezing sound as she breathed. A couple of minutes later she started to push away from Kaoru again. This time he loosened his hold on her. Kaoru saw her gasping for air and grabbing at her chest. He knew immediately that she was having an asthma attack. "Where's your inhaler?" Ayame could barely breath, her chest hurt, badly. She tried to remember, where was her inhaler? Ayame managed to gasp out, "It...it's...my bag...forgot it..." Kaoru was a little confused.

"You forgot it? Where? At the club room?" Ayame nodded, it was getting harder for her to breath. Kaoru lifted her, putting an arm under her knees and another behind her back. He ran, carrying her, downstairs. "Mori-sempai, Honey-sempai and Kyoya-sempai! We have to take Ayame to the hospital!" Kaoru called for a car and carried Ayame back out and into the rain. He slid into the car, still holding her, Kyoya, Mori, and Honey right behind them.

"She's starting to turn pale!" Kaoru was panicking. "What did you do to her?" shouted Kyoya. "It wasn't Kaoru's fault, Kyoya, Koga's gone," thought Ayame before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Ayame woke up in a forest. It didn't seem that strange of a place. Except, there were no animals around, not even birds. Just trees and grass. There was a strong smell of chocolate. She liked it. She walked up to one of the biggest trees and broke off a low hanging branch. To her amazement, the tree was made of chocolate.

It was so quiet in this place, the only sound she heard was herself munching on the chocolate tree branch. She shouted, "hello? Is anyone else here?" That's when she heard a hissing sound. It didn't sound nearby. She shouted again, "hello? Who's there?" Again all she heard was a hissing sound. Only, this time it sounded closer. She was starting to get scared. She shouted, "Hikaru? Kaoru? Are you guys trying to trick me again?"

This time the hissing sound came from behind the tree where she had pulled off the chocolate tree branch. "Tamaki?" she asked, on the verge of tears. The chocolate tree was suddenly engulfed by flames. Ayame started at it, as it melted it revealed the creature that had been hiding behind it. Now Ayame looked into the face of her ex. His face was the same as she'd remembered, same dark short hair and dark eyes. Only his body wasn't human. Instead, he had a long, red and scaly body with short legs. He was a demon.

Ayame screamed as loud as she could. The demon lunged at her. But, just before it reached her something kicked it away. It was Daichi, only he was dressed like Koga, the wolf demon. The demon with Ayame's ex's face was knocked down on it's side. It slid across the ground, tearing up the grass as it went. When it tried to get up to fight a green whip of light and three yellow glowing blades of light sliced into it. The demon dissipated, defeated.

Ayame looked at Daichi, his hair was as long as Koga's, only it was still blonde. Her other two rescuers now joined them. Kyoya approached, dressed as Sesshoumaru. His hair was long and dark and he still wore his glasses, but, he had facial markings like Sesshoumaru. Kaoru looked the strangest of them all. His orange hair was long and he had pointed dog ears the same color as his hair. He was dressed as Inuyasha. Daichi was the first to take her hand in his. "Hey, I told you I'll always protect you, so choose me," said Daichi. Kyoya took hold of her other hand and bowing, said, "I can promise to both always protect you and provide you with many riches. Choose me." Ayame felt confused, "what do they want me to choose them for?" She looked up at Kaoru, who stood away from them and asked him, "do you want me to choose you too?" Kaoru smiled, "I'd like that but, no matter who you choose, I just want to always see you smiling."

Ayame blinked her eyes. She wasn't in the forest anymore. She was in a hospital bed. "Aya-chan! You're awake!" Honey sat on her bed, Mori stood next to him. "We were so scared. you had actually started turning blue on the way over here," said Kaoru, who sat on the other side of the bed. "You were given a corticosteroid injection to open your airways. You might feel your heart racing a little as a side effect," said Kyoya. He adjusted his glasses as he looked at Ayame from here he stood at the foot of the bed. Honey hopped off of the bed. "Takashi and I will go get you something made of chocolate to help you feel better," said a smiling Honey. Kyoya sighed, "I'll go ask the doctor when you'll be discharged." As the three of them walked out of the room. Kaoru moved closer to Ayame. He took hold of her hand and gently squeezed it. She felt her heart start to race and thought, "must be from the shot like Kyoya said."

"Ayame!" Daichi nearly shouted her name as he came into the room. He wore his work uniform. Upon seeing Ayame lying in the hospital bed he balled his hands into fists at his sides. He clenched his jaw. He shouted, "Kaoru! You Bastard! You swore to me that you would keep her safe. But, here she is in a hospital bed!" Daichi grabbed Kaoru by the front of his shirt and shoved him against the wall. Kaoru looked pained. He struggled to get out of Daichi's grip. Ayame got out of the hospital bed and shouted at Daichi, "Daichi! Stop it! This wasn't his fault!"

Daichi ignored her so she said, "let Kaoru go right now! If you hurt him I never want to see you again! You can forget about me!" Daichi looked at her, "you'd pick him over me?" Daichi let go of Kaoru, though he still looked angry. Kyoya came into the room, "oh, hello Daichi. I had no idea you worked in this hospital." Daichi kept his glare on Kaoru. "Yeah, I do." Ayame tugged at his sleeve, "Kyoya's family owns this hospital." She pleaded at him with her eyes, "don't you think you should be getting back to work, Daichi?"

Daichi looked down at her, he didn't care if that rich boys family owned the hospital, but he didn't want to upset Ayame anymore than he already had. Daichi sighed, "yeah, I just came to check on you during my break. But, I have to get back. I'll call you later." Daichi left the room and Kyoya asked, "did I miss something?" Ayame turned her pleading look to Kaoru. She knew that Daichi could be fired for what he'd just done.

She didn't want that. Kaoru understood her look, he shook his head, "no, you didn't miss anything Kyoya-sempai." Ayame sat back down on the bed as Honey and Mori returned with a slice of chocolate cake in a plastic container for her."Look what we got you downstairs at the cafeteria, Aya-chan! I ate a piece while we were there, hehe," Honey giggled. Shortly afterward Hikaru arrived with Haruhi. Hikaru had just dropped her off when he'd gotten the call from Kyoya telling him what had happened. So, he'd gone back to pick up Haruhi to tell her what had happened.

"Sorry about your dog, Ayame," said Haruhi as she and Hikaru entered the room. Tamaki came into the room a few minutes later, "I'm so sorry about Koga, Ayame! You can play with Antoinette whenever you miss him!" Ayame smiled and thought, "I'll always miss you, Koga. But, don't worry, I'm not lonely.

Ayame was discharged from the hospital about an hour later. However, before she was released Kaoru made sure to call home and have Koga removed from the room and taken to be cremated. Everyone said their goodbyes and planned to spend the following day together. This time Tamaki escorted Haruhi home. Upon arriving back at the Hitachiin mansion the twins had taken Ayame up to the room and put her to bed, despite her protesting. She didn't like being stuck in bed for the rest of the evening.

Kaoru walked into the room, "did you like your dinner?" He picked up the tray with dishes in front of her. "Eh, it was okay," said Hikaru. He sat on the bed next to Ayame. The twins had stayed in her room with her, watching anime, to keep her company. Kaoru looked at his brother, "I wasn't asking you. I was asking Ayame." Ayame smiled, "it was good, I'll have to thank the cook next time I see him." She yawned.

"Hikaru, I think we should let her get some rest," said Kaoru. Ayame protested, "I'm not tired yet." The twins ignored her, "goodnight Ayame." Hikaru and Kaoru walked downstairs together to the kitchen. Kaoru carried the tray with Ayame's dishes from dinner. "Kaoru, have you tried telling her yet? How you feel about her?" They were in the kitchen. Kaoru put the dishes and tray in the sink. "I told her that I love her. She said she loves me and you too like little brothers."

Kaoru took a glass out of the cupboard. Hikaru watched his brother as he filled the glass with water from the tap over the sink. "So, she didn't really reject you, Kaoru. Haruhi actually rejected me but I haven't given up. You shouldn't give up so easily either." Kaoru gave Hikaru a smile, "I'm not giving up. Right now I'm going to take her this glass of water and wish her goodnight."

"Good, don't give up," said Hikaru before heading out of the kitchen. Kaoru followed him, "maybe the second time I tell her she won't misunderstand." Upstairs, Hikaru walked to his bedroom while Kaoru went into Ayame's. "I brought you a glass of water," Kaoru crossed the room to put down the glss on the bedside table. Ayame yawned, "thanks. You don't have to do all of this you know. I can walk." Kaoru smiled, "the doctor said you should rest. I don't mind doing it, anyways. You did it for me when I was sick."

Ayame smiled, "thank you, Kaoru. I'm sorry I slapped you earlier." Kaoru laughed, "I barely felt it," he lied so she wouldn't feel so bad. "Do you need anything else?" asked Kaoru. Ayame bit her lower lip, "if it's not too much trouble, could you stay with me until I fall asleep? I've gotten so used to having Koga with me. It feels weird to be alone." Kaoru smiled, "sure." Kaoru sat on the bed beside Ayame.

He felt so comfortable with her. He let himself relax, he hadn't realized just how tired he was. He thought to himself, "should I try to tell her how I feel again? What if she rejects me? I'm so tired...maybe I should wait until morning to tell her again. I think I'll do that." Kaoru looked at Ayame sitting up in bed next to him, watching TV. He thought, "she's still awake. I can barely keep my eyes open. But, she doesn't even seem tired." Kaoru let his eyes close, he meant to only rest his eyes for a few minutes. Without meaning to he drifted off to sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

Kaoru was bothered by the sunlight hitting his face. He moved to turn his back to the light but felt something holding him. He opened his eyes to see Hikaru sitting on the corner edge of the bed. Hikaru grinned, "so you actually made a move on her? I knew you were going to confess but I never thought you two would move so fast." Kaoru looked down to see Ayame's arm over his stomach. Kaoru sat up in bed, slowly, so not to wake Ayme. Kaoru rubbed at his eyes, "nothing happened, Hikaru. I fell asleep before I even got to tell her anything."

Ayame stirred on the bed next to Kaoru. She yawned and opened her eyes. She was a little confused at first, she had thought she had been holding a pillow...an oddly warm pillow. She looked up to see a grinning Kaoru sitting up next to her, with her arm over his stomach. "Oh geez!" She yanked her arm back and sat up in bed. She looked from Hikaru to Kaoru, "you stayed here all night? I know you fell asleep, I didn't bother waking you because you had seemed really tired. But, I had figured you'd wake up eventually and go to your own room." Hikaru grinned at her, "he must have been really comfortable. You two looked really cozy when I came into the room...especially you, Ayame. I have to wonder what went on between you two last night." He laughed. For once Ayame and Kaoru said together, "shut up! Nothing happened!"

Ayame sighed, "listen...Hikaru..." at the sound of his name Hikaru quit his teasing grin at his brother and looked at Ayame. "What is it?" asked Hikaru. She looked at him, a slightly scared look in her eyes. "Do you think you could leave Kaoru and I alone for a minute?" Kaoru looked at her, or actually, watched her. Kaoru felt a knot in his stomach, he doubted that whatever she had to say to him was something good. She did not look happy.

Hikaru stood up from the bed, looked to his twin then back at Ayame, "sure, I'll be downstairs." Hikaru left the room, closing the door behind himself. Ayame sighed again, heavily, "Kaoru...I was thinking a lot last night, while you were here. I've decided to tell you the truth." Kaoru tilted his head slightly, "the truth? The truth about what?" He thought, "maybe she is going to tell me the truth that she secretly loves me too? But, if that were the case, why would she look scared?" She wouldn't look at him, she couldn't. What if he didn't like her anymore once he knew the truth?

"Kaoru...I am going to tell you the truth about my past. Why I no longer speak to my parents, why my ex is after me. He wants me to keep silent about that night. It was the same night that I first met Kyoya. Although I didn't know at the time that he and I were supposed to be arranged to be married." Kaoru winced slightly at learning about that, although he didn't say anything. He didn't want to interrupt her. "When my father had announced at the party that night that he was going to name who I was to be married to...I just ran. I had thought I already found the boy that I loved. The boy I wanted to marry. We were even engaged."

"But things didn't turn out that way." Ayame thought back to that night, after she had left the Kyoya, standing there in the ballroom. Now she felt so guilty for having done that. But he hadn't been the only person she'd hurt that night. She remembered how she had snuck out of the house while everyone was busy enjoying themself. Her parents were not the type to leave a party early just because their daughter had run off upset. So, she had left with her supposed fiance.

She remembered it all so clearly as she told everything to Kaoru, who sat quietly and listened intently. It was a warm evening. Ayame rode in the passenger seat of her fiancee's car. Their friend, Daichi, rode in the back. They were heading to the convenience store to buy sodas and to take a few things. Ayame had her window rolled down. She loved spending time with Kazuki, her fiancee. She enjoyed spending time with Daichi as well, of course, she liked him better than any of the other guys Kazuki hung around. Daichi had become a good friend to her, so much so that they addressed one another as brother and sister.

They pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store. Kazuki looked at his two passengers, "alright, Daichi, you know what to do, grab what you can while I pay for the sodas. Ayame, babe, are you in or out?" Ayame had shop lifted before a few other times. At first, she had hated the idea, but, she soon learned to accept it as the norm when around Kazuki and his group. But, after the previous events of this evening she'd had enough stress and excitement. "I'm out. I'll just wait in the car." She watched as Daichi and Kazuki walked into the store. Daichi walked ahead of Kazuki, so she saw him pull the skii mask over his head just before entering the store.

She wasn't sure what he was doing at first. That is, until she saw him pull out the small gun from his pocket. He fired a shot into the ceiling and then pointed it at the store clerk. She started to panic. Kazuki had never done anything like this, at least, not with her around. She watched as the store clerk emptied the cash register into a paper bag. Daichi was shouting at Kazuki, though Ayame couldn't make out what. She could feel her chest growing tight. She was scared. What would happen if they were caught?

Once they ran out of the store Kazuki sat in the driver's seat again, Daichi sat behind Ayame, trying to calm her down. "Ayame, you're wheezing, you need to calm down or it's going to get worse." Ayame shook her head and wheezed out, "why did you do that Kauzki? Shoplifting was one thing, but this is too much!" Kazuki sped through the streets in an attempt to get them lost. "I had to do it, baby, I need to know how much you love me. How much are you willing to do for me? Would you have helped me in there?" Ayame gave Kazuki a slap to the back of the head. "I'm not stupid, I would never do that!"

Daichi spoke up, angry, "you mean to tell me you weren't joking when you told me that crap?" Ayame was confused, "what did he tell you?" "He told me that he wanted to see if you'd help him to rob your parents house. But he had to test you to see how far you were willing to go before he told you about robbing your parents' place." Ayame was angry and it showed in her voice, "you...you wanted to use me? So, this whole time, you were just going to use me? Let me out of the car! I'm going to the police!" Kazuki turned into an alley that was made into a dead end by a chain link fence that prevented them from driving through it. He got out of the car and pulled Ayame out. He shoved her against a wall. Daichi hurried out of the car, "hey! I know I've kept my mouth shut over you dragging her into stupid stuff and even when you cheat on her, but I won't let you hit her!"

Daichi shoved Kazuki away from Ayame and stood in front of her. Kazuki acted as if Daichi wasn't even there as he shouted to Ayame. "Did you really think I was with you because I gave a damn about you? I'm a twenty year old guy with a sixteen year old girl! I could go to prison just for being with you! When I first saw you when I worked on your father's property all I saw was a stupid girl I could easily use to get some huge cash out of. Now, you're not going to tell anyone about what went on there or else you'll get into trouble too. You were there too!" They heard the sound of police sirens coming. Kazuki reached into the front seat of the car and grabbed the paper bag full of money.

He easily scaled the chain link fence that divided the alley way and ran off. Ayame didn't know what to do, so Daichi grabbed her by the arm and pushed her up the fence. Once she was over he started to climb it as well. Ayame waited for him. The sirens grew closer. Any second the police would be there and they would be caught. Daichi jumped off of the fence. He hadn't managed to get over it to join Ayame. "What are you doing? Daichi, climb over the fence, hurry!" Ayame was starting to panic. Daichi looked at her, calmly. "Ayame, you're my little sister, remember? I have to make sure you don't get into trouble. Promise me you won't let yourself get caught." Ayame started to cry, "Just jump the fence, please!" "Ayame, I'm not moving from here unless you promise me you won't let yourself get caught, no matter what it takes. You don't belong in prison." Ayame nodded and started to cy, "I promise, I won't let myself get caught." The sirens grew even closer. Daichi turned and ran out of the alley in the opposite direction. Ayame watched and cried as the police chased after him.

She ran away from that spot until her lungs hurt. But she wouldn't stop. She didn't know where to go or what to do. She knew her parents would be angry with her. She had disobeyed them for the first time. But, they would forgive her if she just apologized, wouldn't they? She would do as they said. Though she could not marry a boy she did not love. She had to follow her heart, not their order when it came to marriage. She kept thinking, over and over again as she ran, "how could Kazuki ever think to use me? Does he really love me? poor Daichi. None of this was his fault. I should have made him come with me." That thought hurt her the most. Even more than being used by the man she thought she'd been in love with. She hadn't wanted to leave Daichi, but, she didn't know what else to do. Daichi had made her promise she wouldn't let herself get caught, so she ran. If she were caught wouldn't Daichi be mad at her? But how could she have just let him get into trouble by himself? He had always been a good friend to her. But now she had just left him there to be arrested for a crime he didn't committ.

The only thing he was guilty of was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "I can't go home, not yet, I have to get Kazuki to confess. This mess was his fault." Ayame ran until she reached Kazuki's apartment. She could barely breath by now. She wheezed as she walked through the door. The moment she stepped into the apartment she heard the click of a gun being cocked and saw Kazuki pointing a gun at her from where he sat on the sofa. He looked angry to see her. "What are you doing here? Close the door!" He stood and shut the door before guiding Ayame to the sofa. His expression softened when he heard her wheezing. He reached into his pocket for something. "Geez Ayame, did you run all the way here? That's my girl! See, I knew you could do it. All we have to do now is lay low for a while. I'm sorry for yelling at ya, you know I love you and I didn't mean anything that I said back there." Kazuki pulled an inhaler out of his pocket and raised it to Ayame's mouth. He pressed down on the pump for her.

She looked into his eyes. How many times had he yelled at her, belittled her, and then said he was sorry? She always forgave him. Because she loved him. She'd thought he was different from all the rich boys she met at her parents' parties. She thought he would love her for her. Not because of who her parents were, or what he could get out of her. Perhaps it was too much for her to want. Someone who loved her just because she was herself. Ayame calmed her breathing enough that she could talk after a few minutes. "Kazuki, I thought I loved you. But...after tonight...I don't know how to feel about you." Kazuki looked angry again, he stood up so that he was standing over her. "So, you're saying you don't love me? Just because I asked you to prove it. To think I was going to marry you." He paced across the small room of the apartment.

"I'm not stupid, Kazuki. You didn't do that so that I could prove that I love you. You did it for your own reasons. Because you wanted to use me. You used Daichi too. He was caught because he sacrificied himself so that I could get away. You have to go to the police and tell them you did it." Kazuki stopped his pacing. "There you go again. I'm not going to the police and you better not either, you hear me? If I go down then you're going with me. Got that? I don't mean that I'll just make sure you get arrested for being there, either. Don't forget, I know a lot of people willing to do whatever I say, when I say, both in prison and out. I don't think you'd want anything to happen to your so called oniisan once he's locked up, do you?"

He glared down at Ayame. She felt her chest grow tight again. She ran out of the apartment and down the street. She couldn't say anything to anyone. She had already let Daichi down. She didn't want to be the cause of him getting hurt as well. She ran until she finally reached her house. She collapsed to her knees outside the main doors. She banged on one of the doors with her fist. Someone had to answer. She had no where else to go. As she waited for someone to open the door it started to rain. It was a male servant who opened the door. He let her in, but, asked her to wait by the doors. Ayame wheezed from running so much and from all the stress of the evening. Her parents came down the main stairs. Both wore their pajamas and robes. Ayame hadn't realized it was late in the night already.

"Mother, Father, please, forgive me for my rude behavior earlier. I cannot promise to marry the boy of your choosing. I will do anything else you ask of me. But I simply cannot marry someone I do not love. I'm sorry." Her parents approached her. Her mother looked at her, her sneakers were filthy from running, her jeans were torn at her thigh from when she'd jumped the chain link fence, and her T-shirt was sweaty from running. Ayame braced herself for what she knew would come next. Her mother slapped her across the face. It did not come as a surprise to Ayame. Though it stung, badly, she had learned to expect it any time her mother was angry. She thought that was the worst to come.

Her mother turned away from her and headed back up the stairs. Her father did the same. Ayame started to follow, but her father's words stopped her. "Ayame, I have made up my mind. You are not allowed back into this house. You made your choice to disobey your mother and I. You embarassed us in front of all of our guests. The boy I had chosen for you no doubtedly would never want a disobedient girl for a wife. If you cannot even obey your mother and I how are you to be trusted to obey a husband?" Her father turned away from her and said, "now, leave our property or I'll call the police." He walked up the stairs, leaving Ayame by herself.

Ayame felt herself just shutting down. How could this be happening? How could she have lost everything in one night? She didn't want to leave. So she just sat there. She sat down on the bottom step of the main stairs. Her body felt heavy from being so tired. She didn't move. Not even when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She stayed very still for a while. But, she stood up when she heard the police sirens. She managed to slip out through the back, hoping she hadn't been seen. She had made a promise to Daichi, she couldn't let herself be caught. She ran again.

Once she was back out onto the main street she finally stopped running. Her lungs couldn't take it anymore. Normally she hated running, but she had no other choice tonight. She shivered from the coldness of the rain. She remembered her cell phone vibrating and pulled it out. She had gotten a text message from Kazuki, it read, "remember, if you say anything your precious oniichan will pay for it. I'll be watching you wherever you are." Ayame deleted the message before she threw the phone into a trash can. She kept walking until her legs wanted to give out from under her. She stopped in front of what she thought was a store and just sat down. At least here there was a small patio so she could have some relief from the rain. She let herself drift off to sleep. A short time later she was woken up by Michelle, who's business Ayame had fallen asleep in front of.

Ayame was trying to keep herself from crying. She still felt guilty for having let Daichi get into trouble while Kazuki had never gotten into trouble for the robbery. Kaoru put his arms around her shoulders and held her. He didn't want to see her upset again. "What made you decide to tell me all of this, Ayame?" She gently pulled out of his embrace, though a part of her didn't want to. "Kaoru, I had been wanting to tell you all of this for a while. But, I had to make sure I could trust you...and I was scared if you knew then Kazuki might want to come after you as well." Kaoru smiled, "you don't have to worry about me, Ayame. You're the one he's after and I'm going to make sure he doesn't get to you." She wiped at her eyes, "there's something else I need to tell you Kaoru...I..."

"Hey! Kaoru! I almost thought it was you downstairs, I mean Ayame told me you guys were twins but wow do you guys look alike! I actually started apologizing to him for almost beating you up yesterday. Good mornin' lil' sis! How are you feeling?" Daichi had walked into the bedroom, interrupting whatever Ayame was about to tell Kaoru. Ayame looked at Daichi and gave him a smile, though she still looked sad. She started to let a few teardrops fall, "I'm sorry Daichi, I'm sorry I didn't help you that night you let yourself be arrested. I should have made you come with me." Daichi was a little surprised by Ayame's sudden apology.

He hadn't known before that moment that Ayame had felt guilty for that. He folded his arms and looked at Kaoru, "hey, Kaoru, man, I'm sorry about yesterday but, right now I need to talk to her. Can you give us some time alone?" Kaoru didn't want to leave Ayame's side. He wanted to be there for her, she was crying, he felt that she needed him. But, he knew that Daichi could comfort her just as well. Reluctantly, he stood and left the room and went to his bedroom to change.

Daichi sat down on the bed where Hikaru had sat only a short time before. He looked at Ayame, who was still teary eyed, and patted the spot on the bed next to him. She moved to sit next to him and sat on her knees. She let him put his arm around her shoulders and pull her close. "You shouldn't feel bad, Ayame. I wanted to keep you out of trouble. Like I told you back then, you didn't belong in prson. I never believed that you belonged with Kazuki and the rest of us either. We were nothing but a bunch of thieves and punks." Ayame wiped away her tears, "I didn't belong at home either. But, at least I was happy when I was with you guys."

Daichi looked down at her, "you were actually happy with us? Even with Kazuki? Even though he wasn't exactly treat you all that great? I always thought you deserved better. You deserved a guy who would treat you with respect and take care of you." Ayame thought a moment, remembering her relationship with Kazuki. "Yeah, I was happy when I was with you guys. Because you let me be me. Other than the shoplifting you guys didn't expect anything from me. Kazuki wasn't a good boyfriend or a good fiancee...I don't know what I was thinking being with that jerk." Daichi smiled, "I would respect you and take care of you. Ayame...I...I want you to come stay with me. Now that I have my own place, let me take care of you like you deserve."

She smiled up at him, "you really want me to stay with you? That would be great! But, why do you want me to stay with you now but, when I asked you to stay with me at my place you said no?" Daichi looked hopeful, "because, I wasn't ready for that. I wanted it so badly but I wanted it for a different reason than you did and I was scared if I told you the truth about how I feel about you then you would reject me. But, I can't keep hiding it from you, Ayame, I'm asking you to come live with me now because I'd like you to be my girl, as in my girlfriend."

It took a moment for Ayame to respond. She hadn't expected that. She moved Daichi's arm from over her shoulders and held his hand in hers. "I'm sorry, Diachi but, I can't." Daichi was hurt, though he tried very hard to hide it. "You have feelings for someone else, huh?" Ayame bit her bottom lip, yeah, but he doesn't know it yet." Daichi was confused, "why not?" She sighed, "I'm terrified he doesn't feel the same way and I don't think I should be dating someone right now. Not with Kazuki wanting something. What if Kazuki were to hurt him?"

"I wish I could tell you not to worry about it but, you're right. Do these guys even know yet about the robbery? You don't have to worry anymore about getting in trouble. I did some digging and found out that you don't show up on the surveillance video. It's just me and that ex of yours.," said Daichi with a smile. Ayame hugged his arm, "thanks, for helping me get away that night. I hope you're not too hurt about me not being your girl." Daichi smiled again, "I'll get over it. I know it's really my own fault for not telling you sooner, before you fell for someone else. But, anyways, I'm gonna go downstairs and look for the kitchen and let you get dressed. I'm starving, I knew I should have eaten before coming over here."

"Okay," said Ayame, "I'll be down in a bit." Downstairs, in the kitchen the entire Host Club had gathered around a woman who said she was a close friend of Ayame's The twins were about to sit down to breakfast when she came. The rest of the Host club members had come shortly afterward. The woman's name was Michelle, she was Ayame's friend from America. She had returned to Japan.

She told the Host Club that she had left because a distant relative had fallen ill. After the relatives passing she had inherited a house so she had stayed in America to sell the house. She really prefered living in Japan, though she had been born and raised in America. Other than the distant relative she didn't have any other family in America. She'd felt guilty for leaving Ayame, but, now she was back and excited to see her close friend again. Diachi had come downstairs and walked into the kitchen. "Geez this place is too big. I thought I wasn't going to be able to find the kitchen. I'm sure you rich people won't mind if I eat some of your food," said Daichi with a grin. The twins gave him a smirk, if he hadn't been Ayame's friend they would have had him thrown out for being so rude.

Daichi took some eggs out of the refridgerator and started searching for a pan. Michelle watched Daichi move about the kitchen as she spoke. "Do you guys want to know how I met Ayame?" Michelle looked at the faces of the young boys sitting around the table looking curiously at her. She smiled, "I was locking up the boarding kennel, my place of business, one night. I was leaving late because one of the dogs had been sick. So, I walk outside and there's Ayame, soaking wet, sitting down on the ground and asleep. I shook her awake and took her with me to my appartment."

Michelle sighed, "what can I say? I have a weakness, I always end up taking in strays." Kaoru looked annoyed, "Ayame's not a dog." Michelle ignored him, "so, which one of you gorgeous boys is 18 or older?" Honey was about to answer but, Mori put his hand over his mouth before he could say anything. "You shouldn't answer that," said Mori to Honey. Michelle turned to Tamaki, who sat in the chair next to her. "What about you, handsome? I love a guy with blondey hair," said Michelle as she smiled at Tamaki. Tamaki smiled back, politely, "No, ma'am, I'm sorry but I'm not 18 yet." Michelle exploded, "who are you calling ma'am? Boy, I'm only twenty years old! Don't call me ma'am!" Tamaki went under the table and cried, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything bad by it!"

Daichi laughed from where he stood in front of the stove cooking his eggs. Michelle looked at him and frowned, "what are you laughing at? You think it's funny that none of these cute boys is old enough for me to have fun with? How old are you anyways? You're pretty good looking yourself." Daichi half laughed, "you're in luck, I'm 18." Kyoya folded his hands on the table, "I was under the impression that you had feelings for Ayame?" Daichi winced at Kyoya's question, "I did, but, she rejected me." Ayame came through the kitchen door. Ayame smiled excitedly at the site of her friend, "Michelle! You're actually here already!"

Michelle stood and hugged Ayame. "I told you over the phone that I was coming back, Ayame. Oh, and I brought you a little something to help you feel better after what happened with Koga." Michelle whistled and a white great dane mix puppy came out from under the table. He was huge. Ayame's eyes were wide with excitement, "he's for me? He's so cute!" Michelle smiled, "I've been calling him Inuyasha. He's only about five months old. I would have kept him after I found him but, you know my dogs wouldn't like me bringing home another one." Ayame smiled while petting the pup, who now stood in front of her, sniffing her and happily wagging his tail.

"What do you guys think about having a picnic at the park to celebrate Michelle coming back? Daichi and I can make omelettes," said Ayame. "That sounds great!" said Michelle. "Yeah," agreed the twins. Tamaki come out from under the table and slammed his fist down on the table top, "then it's settled! We will have a picnic at the park!" At the park Ayame stepped out of the Hitachiin family car with her new pup, he of course was on a leash. The twins and Haruhi stepped out of the car after her. Everyone had brought their own family's car, except for Daichi and Michelle who had happily accepted a ride from Daichi.

Ayame shivered slightly as she walked with the group. Kaoru walked beside her as the group looked for a spot to set up their picnic. Kaoru noticed her shivering, "are you cold?" Ayame nodded, just a little. I should have brought a sweater but, I thought it was going to be warm out." Kaoru took off the sweater that he wore and put it over her shoulders. Ayame smiled at him, "thank you but, won't you be cold now?" Kaoru returned the smile, "nah, I'm sleeves might be kind of long on you though." "He can be so sweet," thought Ayame as she put the sweater on. Sure enough, the sleeves were too long for her but, she didn't mind. "Kao-chan! Aya-chan! We found a great spot for the picnic!" Honey called them to a spot near a pond.

As they set up the picnic ducks started coming out of the pond toward them hoping for food. Kyoya walked up to Ayame and said, "other than the slight wind it's a beautiful day, wouldn't you agree?" He smiled at her. Ayame smiled back, "yeah, it's a nice day for a picnic." As the ducks got closer Ayame's new pup, Inuyasha, began to bark excitedly. "Oh, hush, Inuyasha!" said Ayame. A brave duck walked around Ayame and Kyoya, just out of reach of the barking puppy. Inuyasha tried to chase the duck but instead only succeeded in wrapping his leash around Kyoya and Ayame's legs. Inuyasha pulled on the leash until Ayame and Kyoya were pulled very close to one another.

"I'm so sorry about this, Kyoya," said Ayame. Kyoya smiled, he was not displeased with his current position at all. "It's not at problem at all, Ayame." Ayame smiled politely back, struggling to keep her balance. Kyoya had a better stance and so he told Ayame to lean against him if she needed to as she they struggled to get loose. Meanwhile, across the picnic blanket Kaoru and Hikaru sat watching the pair tangled by the dog leash. Kaoru smiled, a dreamy look on his face, "I thought she was a little weird at first. She's really into that anime, Inuyasha. But, I have to admit that I actually started crushing on her after she kept me company while I was sick. She seemed sweet and I had fun with her. I had wanted to ask her to hang out sometime, just the two of us. But, I was terrified she'd reject me like Haruhi did to you." Kaoru spoke softly so that only his twin that sat beside him could hear him.

Hikaru was annoyed by Kaoru's comment about Haruhi rejecting him. "Why must you bring that up, Kaoru?" Kaoru ignored his brothers annoyance and went on, "when she saw me in the shower I knew I could blackmail her into going out with me." Hikaru was surprised, "she saw you in the shower?" Kaoru frowned, focusing back on Kyoya and Ayame who were having trouble getting Inuyasha to stop pulling on the leash so they could free themselves from it. Kaoru sighed, "yeah, she did. But, anyhow, I don't think she feels the same way about me. Just look at her with Kyoya-sempai," said Kaoru. Despite being tangled together Kyoya and Ayame were both smiling. The dog kept them pulled together as he tried to chase after ducks. Kaoru stood and walked over the the pair, he had watched long enough.

Kaoru took hold of the leash nearest to where it attached to the puppy's collar and started to pull him around Kyoya and Ayame to untangle them. The puppy, Inuyasha, however, didn't care about untangling them, he just wanted to chase ducks. So, he pulled backwards, away from where Kaoru held onto his leash and slipped his collar off. Ayame shouted, "Inuyasha! Come here!" But, the dog ignored her and chased off the ducks until they where flying away.

They flew over the park. The pup happily followed (on foot of course), barking as he went. The entire time Ayame kept calling to him. She, Kyoya, Kaoru, and Hikaru chased after the dog. Daichi stood from where he sat on the ground beside Michelle and shouted, "wait for me! I'll come to!" The others started to stand up but Michelle asked them to stay with her. "Won't you guys stay with me? I'm sure they'll get Inuyasha. It doesn't take more than a few people to chase down a dog, afterall, and we really shouldn't just leave all of this food lying here." They sat back down and Honey pulled out a white cake with strawberries around it, "while we wait we can have some cake!"

The group of five chased after the pup, Ayame called to him continuosly. But, to him it was much more fun to be chased than to return when called. Inuyasha had now lead them aay from the park and was running along a busy street. Kaoru ran alongside Ayame, " are you doing okay? you can stop if you need to. We'll get him for you." Ayame smiled, "I'm fine. Mori has had me running before each training session. My asthma attack yesterday was...well...caused by emotion." Inuyasha turned a corner into an alley. The group turned the same corner after him but, didn't see him. They alley not only continued straight onto yet another busy street but, it also turned right and left onto busy streets. "Let's split up and ask around if anyone's seen him," said Kaoru. He ran straight, Ayame followed him, while Daichi ran left and Hikaru and Kyoya ran right.

Ayame and Kaoru were nearing the end of the alley when they heard Inuyasha barking. They came to the busy street and saw a man wearing dark clothes leaning against a car with tinted back windows. Inuyasha barked at him from the front seat of the car. "How did you managed to catch him?" asked Ayame. The man grinned, "you just have to know how to show 'em who's boss to make 'em listen. Plus, I slipped a rope around his neck when he passed me." Ayame walked up to the car to get Inuyasha out but, the man stopped her. He gave her a grin, "I think maybe you should let your friend there get him out. That dog really needs a strong hand."

Something about this man made Ayame feel uneasy. She stepped back without saying anything. Kaoru walked up to the driver side door to take Inuyasha out of the car but, he too was stopped by the man. "I tied to rope around his neck to one of the seatbelts in the back to make sure he didn't run off again if I opened one of the doors. So, you gotta go untie that rope from the back before you can get him out." Kaoru tried opening the back door, "I think it's locked." "Sorry about that, I gotta go through the front seat to unlock it." The man sat in the driver's seat, pushing Inuyasha to the passenger seat.

He unlocked the door for Kaoru. Kaoru opened the back seat and leaned inside. There was a dark haired man sitting in the seat farthest from Kaoru. Kaoru and Ayame had been unable to see him through the windows before because of their dark tinting. The man in the back seat grabbed Kaoru by the front of his shirt, pulled him inside and quickly shut the car door. At the same time the man in the driver's seat pushed Inuyasha out of the car as he drove away from the curb. "Kaoru!" Ayame shouted as she reached to grab the back door before it was closed behind Kaoru. But, she had not been fast enough. The car sped away with Kaoru inside.

Just before the door had been closed behind, Kaoru, however, Ayame had seen the face of the man in the backseat. It was the same face of the man that had broken her heart once. It was Kazuki. She stared down at the sleeves of Kaoru's sweater that she still wore. What could kazuki possibly want with Kaoru? Kazuki wasn't supposed to hurt anyone but her. Ayame remembered what one of the thugs who had attackeher in her harpartment had told her. "He's been watching you, Ayame. It's not you he wants something from.

Did that mean she had never really been Kazuki's target? She and Daichi had thought he was attacking her to make shre she kept her silence about the robbery. They had thought that with Daichi out of prison Kazuki no longer felt he had any leverage on her so he was attacking her directly. But, instead he had taken Kaoru. Inuyasha walked up to her, panting, as Ayame pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and called Daichi, Kyoya, and Hikaru. She didn't tell them over the phone what had happened. She asked them to meet her back at the park with the others and she told them to hurry. She knew Hikaru would be very upset, he might even get angry. But, she didn't care right now. All she could think about was what Kazuki might do to Kaoru.

She felt her chest tighten as she ran back to the park with Inuyasha back on his leash. Kaoru struggled to loosen the tape that bound his arms and legs. Kazuki kept his feet on Kaoru's chest, pinning him down to the floor of the backseat. "Kazuki, that used to be your girl, wasn't she? asked the man that was driving.

Kazuki grinned, "she was. But, she didn't know how to listen and do what she was told so I had to dumb her." Kaoru struggled, "you used her. That's why she left you. She deserves better than a jerk like you." Kazuki half laughed, "you think that bothers me? I was only with her to use her to get back at her father. Bastard fired me just 'cause he caught me drinking a beer on my break. Then he made it almost impossibly for me to find another job. He did that 'cause he said I disrespected him by not following his rule of no drinking on the job. So, I figured if I got his daughter to fall for me I could convince her to help me steal from her father. I had planned on telling her we would need the money to run away together. Of course, I was going to dump her after we robbed from her father. After I got my revenge."

Kazuki looked down at Kaoru, who was still struggling. Kazuki balled his right hand into a fist and punched Kaoru in the face. Kaoru winced, "ow!" "Keep still! If you're a good little rich boy I won't hurt you anymore than I have to. I'm just going to keep you until your parents pay me what I'm asking for. You can thank Ayame for bringing you straight to me." "Hey," said the man driving, "after I leave you guys at the hotel I gotta leave for work. Call me when you hear from his parents." Kazuki nodded.

At the park Ayame had just told everyone what had happened to Kaoru and explained that she had thought Kazuki was targeting her because she was a witness to a robbery he had committed. But, somehow it turned into Kazuki targeting the Hitachiin brothers. She figured he must have learned about them while watching Ayame. Hikaru started shouting, "you just stood there while he was taken away?" Ayame started to cry so Daichi stepped in. "Shut up, Hikaru. Ayame, please stop crying. You know Kazuki's only interested in money. So, Hikaru, all we can do is go back to your place and wait for Kazuki to call. Don't involve the police until we can figure out where he's taken your brother, or else things could get worse."

Everyone gathered in the living room once they got back to the Hitachiin mansion. Hikaru held a portable house phone in his hands and bounced his knee nervously. He had called his parents and they were on their way home by plane from overseas. The room was silent except for the sound Hikaru's leg maid as it moved up and down. Ayame could hardly stand sitting still. It made her feel even more helpless. She stood to walk out of the room but, Daichi gently grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?" asked Daichi. Ayame forced a smile, "I'm going to get a drink of water, I'll be right back." In the kitchen Ayame had filled a glass with water when her cell phone rang. She didn't recognize the number that showed on her cell phone screen.

But, she answered it anyhow, "hello?" "Hey, baby, I told you I'd be watching you. I had thought I'd only be watching to make sure you kept your mouth shut about the convenience store. But, then you started working for that rich family. That's when I came up with the brilliant idea to kidnap one of the kids and hold him for ransom. It worked out perfectly, I mean, I still haven't been able to find a job since your dad fired me, so this is a great opportunity for me, don't you think? Then I thought, to make this even more fun, I should make you tell his parents my demands instead of calling them directly. I mean, I couldn't have pulled this off without your help. You did lead him straight to me." The entire time Kazuki was talking Ayame was thinking up a lie to tell him.

Ayame struggled to keep her voice steady. "Kazuki, you idiot! I only took the job working here to hook up with one of the boys to get my parents to speak to me again. I wanted them to let me back in the house so I could get the alarm codes and then rob them blind. Kazuki was quiet on his end for a moment. Kazuki asked her, "since when do you want to rob from your parents?" Ayame knew her lie would work. "You're so stupid, Kazuki, did you really think they were going to let me go home after I left with you? They threw me out of the house when I tried to go home. They didn't even care that I didn't have anywhere to go. I want to get back at them for that. But, there's only one way to hurt them and that's by taking their money."

Ayame did her best to make her voice sound cold. "So you better not hurt Kaoru. Or, I'll tell the cops who took him and then you'll have to watch your back everywhere you go. Tell me where you are and I'll pick him up. I'll let you get away too. I won't tell anyone that I know who you are." Kazuki half laughed, "why would I just let him go? What do I get out of it?" Ayame knew he would ask that. "You let him go and I'll let you in on my idea. My parents have already let me come over to visit once, I'm surprised you didn't see that, since you claimed to be watching me. I already have the alarm codes. You know this is a better offer than you holding Kaoru for ransom. His parents are going to involve the police. They're not going to give you anything. So, if you don't let him go and ask for a ransom you're just going to end up in prison. But, it's your choice if you take my offer or not."

Kazuki thought for a moment, "how do I know this isn't all a trick? Aren't you still mad at me for letting Daichi take the blame for what I did?" Ayame forced a laugh, "I don't care about him. Turns out all he wanted was to get into my pants. He tried to make a move on me this morning but, I turned him away. So, what do you say? Let me come over? Besides, if I'm lying and don't bring the codes then you can easily beat me up. I'm not a threat to you. Unless you're scared of a little girl like me." Ayame was provoking him.

Kazuki laughed, "no way I'm scared of you. Alright, I'll give you back the kid. I'd love to get back at your dad. But, I want those alarm codes before I hand over the kid. Oh, and don't even think about giving me fake codes 'cause I will make you pay if you do." Kazuki told Ayame the hotel and room number he had checked into. He told her to come alone or else the deal was off and he would hurt Kaoru. He claimed he would know if she called the police or didn't come alone. She wasn't sure if he really would know if she called the police or brought someone with her but, she didn't want to risk anything, so she went alone. Ayame left a note for the others explaining how Kazuki had called her and where she was going.

She did that just in case things turned out badly with kazuki. She hoped things went according to her plan so that she could be sure Kaoru wasn't hurt. If she let Kazuki hold Kaoru for ransom then she couldn't be certain Kazuki wouldn't hurt Kaoru. She hand't been able to do anything to stop Kazuki from letting Daichi go to prison for a crime Kazuki had committed. But, she could get Kaoru home unhurt. Ayame took a taxi to the hotel Kazuki had told her to meet him at.

Kazuki opened the door to the hotel room before she'd even knocked, which, she knew meant that he'd been watching through the window. She walked into the small hotel room. Her heart was pounding. She was very nervous and when she didn't see Kaoru in the room she felt her stomach knot. But, she didn't dare show how she was feeling to Kazuki. "It's been a while, Ayame. You're still just as cute as when we were together. It's too bad you never let me kiss you." Kazuki grinned and stroked her cheek. Ayame wanted to hit him but, first she had to be sure Kaoru was okay. She spoke forecully, "where's Kaoru? You better not have hurt him."

Kazuki walked to the bathroom. "Relax, your boy's fine. I had to blindfold him though in case he came to. We couldn't have him seeing you and I making plans together, now could we?" He opened the door to the bathroom and Ayame saw that Kaoru was tied and that Kazuki had put him in the bathtub. Ayame asked, "is he unconscious?" Kazuki grinned, "yep. He wouldn't keep still so I had to knock him out." Ayame balled her hands into fists. She thought, "how dare he hurt Kaoru." She wanted to hurt Kazuki but, she couldn't, not yet. Instead, she put her arms around Kazuki's waist.

He was surprised, "what are you doing?" Ayame smiled, "I had forgotten how much I liked bad boys. Kazuki relaxed, "I've never seen this side of you." "Well I've been spending so much time with pretty boys I've missed being with a real man like you." Kazuki leaned in close and kissed her. "Ugh! I'm so happy I gave my first kiss to Kaoru back when we fell down that hill together in the snow," thought Ayame. Ayame wanted to throw up. She had let Kazuki kiss her to distract him while she grabbed the gun he held on his belt. She had noticed it when he'd turned his back to her to walk to the bathroom. She didn't plan on shooting him, just scare him so that she could tie him up until so that she could call the police. Now that she had the gun she pulled away from him quickly and pointed it at him.

Kazuki was angry, "you lied to me? This whole thing was a set up, wasn't it?" Ayame was now the one grinning, "that's right. I liked to you, just like you did to me every time you said you cared about me. But, you're not going to get away with hurting Kaoru. Kazuki half laughed, " "you're not going to do it. You wouldn't shoot me." Ayame's anger showed in her voice. "You don't get it, Kazuki. You hurt Daichi and I couldn't do anything. But, this time you made a huge mistake. Because I'm in love with that boy in there and I'm not going to let you get away with hurting him. I will make sure you pay for what you've done this time." "Bam!" Kazuki threw himself to the floor.

Daichi ran into the room followed by Hikaru and the others. Ayame went into a panic, "I didn't even pull the trigger! Or...or...I didn't mean to!" Kazuki stood up, perfectly fine. The sound Ayame and Kazuki had thought was the gun being shot was actually Daichi breaking the hotel room door down. Ayame put the gun down on the floor. She left Daichi to deal with Kazuki. She ran into the bathroom. Hikaru was shaking as he and Kaoru held onto one another. Kyoya was on his cell phone, calling the police.

"Everything's going to be alright now, " thought Ayame. Once Hikaru had helped Kaoru out of the tub she went up and hugged Kaoru. She told Kaoru, "I'm sorry," and held onto him for just a moment before she heard Kazuki yelling. She and the three boys that crowded the small bathroom walked out of the bathroom to see Kazuki being lead away in handcuffs by the police.

Kazuki had a black eye forming. Ayame knew it had to have been from Daichi. As the police dragged him away Kazuki shouted that he'd had an accomplice and that he knew ewhere the police could find him. Ayame jumped a little when she felt someone put their hands on her shoulders. She knew who's hands they were right away, even before she looked up. Afterall, he had held onto her that way several times before when he was trying to comfort her. She had only jumped because her nerves were still on edge from everything that had happened. She looked up to see Kaoru smiling down at her. He had a bruised cheek and looked tired. "Let's go home, okay, Ayame?" said Kaoru. Ayame smiled back, "okay."

Ayame waited outside of Kaoru's bedroom as the Hitachiin family doctor examined him. The others waited downstairs in the living room. Hikaru had wanted to wait upstairs as well but, Daichi had stopped him. "Something big is about to happen," was all Daichi had said on the matter. Ayame walked into Kaoru's room the moment the doctor had walked out of the room. As she'd passed him the doctor had said that Kaoru was fine, other than some bruising.

Ayame sat down on the bed next to Kaoru, who sat up in bed, and hugged him. Kaoru happily returned the hug. Ayame pulled gently away from Kaoru's embrace to look up at him. She winced at the site of his bruise. She asked him, "are you in any pain?" Kaoru smiled, "no, not at all." She sighed, "I'm so sorry I got you mixed up in all of this." Kaoru gently put a finger under her chin and lifted her face until she was looking up at him. "You shouldn't be apologizing, Ayame. If it wasn't for you I'd still be stuck in that bathtub."

Ayame put her hand on his cheek, the one that wasn't bruised and said, "I had to do something." "Ayame?" said Kaoru, in a gentle tone. She had never touched his face like that. Ayame realized a second later what she was doing and pulled her hand and chin away quickly. "Sorry Kaoru! My hand had a mind of it's own for a second." Kaoru laughed, "it's alright. I mean, you did say that you're in love with me." Ayame blushed bright red, "You heard me say that to Kazuki?" "Yeah. I came to and heard your voice. I almost thought I was dreaming when I heard that. So, is it true, Ayame?"

Ayame continued to blush and looked down at the covers on the bed. "Yeah, it's true. At first I wasn't sure why. I mean, you're exactly the kind of boy I never wanted to be with. You're spoiled and when you're with Hikaru you can be so immature." Kaoru sounded a little annoyed, "I thought you said you were in love with me? That doesn't sound like love." She smiled at him, "but then there's that other side to you. The one I have fallen for. The boy who's always there for me whenever I'm in trouble. The boy who makes me laugh and smile. I admit it, I am in love with you, Kaoru."

Kaoru smiled back at her, "I tried to tell you before, I love you and I mean as more than just a friend." Kaoru took her face in his hands and leaned in close until their lips were touching. They pulled away from the kiss a moment later. "Will you lay down with me for a while, Ayame?" Ayame smiled and nodded. Kaoru laid down on the bed and Ayame laid down beside him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. "Kaoru is a much better kisser than Kazuki," thought Ayame as she drifted off to sleep. They were both exhausted from the events of earlier.

Outside of Kaoru's bedroom Daichi held the door open ever so slightly so that everyone, including Michelle, could see what was going on inside. Upon seeing them lay down together on the bed Daichi closed the door and said, "we should let them rest." Tamaki looked to Kyoya, "are you going to be alright, Kyoya? I know you had really liked her." Kyoya's face showed no emotion, "in a way I knew from the beginning that she did not share my feelings. Now I know it for certain. Oh, well." Daichi walked ahead of the group as they walked down the hall. He looked a little heartbroken himself so Michelle thought she'd try to cheer him up.

"Hey, come on big boy, how about you take me out tonight to cheer yourself up? I'm sure we could have some fun together," said Michelle as she winked at him. Daichi smiled at her, "I guess we could." As they decended the stairs Honey looked up at Mori, "you already knew, didn't you Takashi? You knew that she would pick Kao-chan over Kyo-chan." Mori nodded. Haruhi walked between Tamaki and Hikaru. Haruhi asked, "wait, so this whole time Kyoya sempai, and Kaoru liked Ayame?" Tamaki looked at her, "you mean you couldn't tell?" Haruhi shook her head, "no." Tamaki and Hikaru looked at one another over Haruhi's head as both of them thought, "I wonder who she will choose."


End file.
